Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover
by PhoenixHalliwell13
Summary: Join a certain selected group of people as they begin to read the Harry Potter books. Perspectives change and shocking revelations are revealed. Friends are turning into enemies, and oddly enough, sworn enemies are turning out to be friends. Harry and his friends-and enemies-are about to discover that nothing is as it seems.
1. An Open Book

_**An Open Book**_

As the last ray of sunshine faded behind the skyline and night fell upon Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, everything was so silent that it was almost eerie. Of course, just because everything was quiet didn't mean everyone was asleep. Prefects roamed the corridors patrolling for students that were out of bed past curfew, including a pair of red-headed twins who were brainstorming with Lee Jordan about their superb, fool-proof plan to sneak into the Slytherin common room and pranking all the Slytherins, along with possibly turning Draco Malfoy into a ferret. The Slytherins slept soundly in the dungeons, blissfully unaware of the horrors that would await them when they awoke. The grumpy old caretaker, Filch, argued with Peeves who was causing more of his mayhem on the seventh floor as Mrs. Norris paced somewhere nearby. Meanwhile, Delores Umbridge paced back and forth in her frilly, pink office.

Delores Jane Umbridge was a peculiar woman to say the least. She always wore the frilliest outfits, had a sickly-sweet smile that fooled almost no one, and looked rather like an overgrown toad. She was currently pacing back and forth in her office with a large black quill clutched tightly in her hand. It was her 'special' quill that she had been using during her detentions with Harry Potter. She had to admit that Potter was tougher than she had previously thought him to be; she had been greatly disappointed when she hadn't got to see him break into pieces and beg for mercy at her feet during any of his detentions, though it was still entirely satisfying to watch as he winced in pain each time he carved the words _I must not tell lies _onto the back of his hand using his own blood. Umbridge grinned wickedly; she had seen how the scrawl now etched permanently into his left hand had been rewritten so many times that the cuts from the quill were almost bone-deep. There was no doubt in her mind that they would leave a scar, forever engraved in his skin. This fact only seemed to please her more to know that the damage she had done would now be permanent.

Umbridge's smile faltered for a moment as she remembered that today had been the last day of detention that she had with the Potter brat. Nonetheless, she had rather thought that the Blood Quill had been a brilliant idea on her part, because, at the time, she had thought that this would be an effective way to get the message to sink in. Which it had, but not in all the ways she had intended. Potter was stubborn, she'd give him that. Now she knew it would take more than just a few painful detentions for that boy to shut his trap and stop spouting all his lies about You-Know-Who. She needed a way to punish him, to break him. The Cruciatus Curse was always an option, but that wouldn't stop the others from believing his and Dumbledore's garbage, plus there was the fair chance that she could get caught. She needed to expose him as well. But how would she do it…?

Suddenly with a loud bang, the Hogwarts caretaker, Filch, and the only member of the staff worth keeping around in Umbridge's opinion, came bursting through the door, Mrs. Norris on his tail as always. He was looking out of breath as if he had just run a long distance. He was also looking annoyed and bad-tempered, but then again that was nothing new. He clutched his hand to his heart to try and catch his breath while Mrs. Norris let out a sound that was somewhere between a meow and a hiss.

"Argus?" Umbridge asked in her high-pitched voice. "What is the cause of all this disturbance?"

"It's Peeves, ma'am," Filch told her. "He's causing mayhem in the seventh floor corridor loud enough to wake the entire castle."

"Thank you for informing me, Argus. I'll get right on it." Annoyed and irritated, she rushed passed the caretaker and made her way to the seventh floor. Rushing toward the seventh floor and cursing Peeves the whole way there, she was angry. She had more important things to do, like find ways to get rid of Potter.

True to his word, Umbridge found Peeves swinging from a chandelier in a circular motion while cackling maniacally. Seeing the old toad only brightened his mood and he started to sing, "Oh look, it's Umbitch, the queen of the toads! She's even worse than Snape's over large nose!" (he was singing it to the same tune of "Potter, You Rotter" he had sung many times in second year.) Then he cackled madly again and swooped away before Umbridge even had the time to open her mouth and prepare to yell. The sound of his voice belting various profanities echoed down the corridor.

With dignified huff, Umbridge wrinkled her nose up at Peeves' actions. Honestly, this was _not _a good environment for students. The Minister would be hearing about this. Continuing her pacing and plotting her conspiracy against Potter, she walked back and forth in front of the wall in the corridor, wishing desperately that she had a way to expose Harry Potter's lies to everyone…

Suddenly Umbridge let out a shocked gasp as a large golden door appeared on the wall. Thoroughly startled, she took a few tentative steps closer. When it became apparent that no one was going to jump out and brutally murder her, she curiously pushed the door open.

When she stepped inside she was sorely disappointed. It was nothing but a dusty old broom closet with a rickety old table in the middle that had seven books stacked on top. Walking closer, she bent over so she could read the titles that were printed on the spines.

**Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets**

**Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban**

**Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire**

**Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix**

**Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince**

**Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows**

Umbridge felt a huge smile spread across her face. Books all about Potter? This was all too much to hope for! With these books she could expose Potter! She had the knowledge and proof to expose all of Potter's trickery and lies! She then noticed that there was a note next to the books. She picked up the piece of parchment and began to read.

_Dear Professor Umbridge,_

_You don't know me, but I know you. I know you are looking for a way to expose all of Harry Potter's lies, and I believe I can help you with that. I have sent to you through a portal through time, seven books that detail all of Harry Potter's years at Hogwarts; four set in the past, one in the present, and two in the future. You may read these books in the hopes of exposing the truth, but be warned that they may not contain the answers you are looking for, and may, in fact, have the opposite result than what you are hoping. Here is a list of people that need to be present during the reading:_

_Harry Potter_

_Hermione Granger_

_Ronald Weasley_

_Molly Weasley_

_Arthur Weasley_

_Fredrick Weasley_

_George Weasley_

_Ginerva Weasley_

_Percy Weasley_

_Charlie Weasley_

_Bill Weasley_

_Remus Lupin_

_Albus Dumbledore_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Cornelius Fudge_

_Amelia Bones_

_Neville Longbottom_

_Luna Lovegood_

_Sirius Black_

_Severus Snape_

_Draco Malfoy_

_Nymphadora Tonks_

_All of these people must be present during ALL of the reading. Happy reading in the hopes that these books bring about a better future. Ciao!_

_J.S.P._

**xXxXx**

"_Kill the spare."_

"_Avada Kedavra!" _

"No, Cedric!"

Harry sat bolt upright in bed, drenched in a cold sweat. Shaking violently, he closed his eyes and pressed his fists against them hard, trying to get the image of Cedric's motionless dead body out of his mind. But it didn't work. All he saw was green light caused by nothing but two little words: _Avada Kedavra. _Dead. Cedric was dead; how could two little words cause so much damage? How could a life be snuffed out so easily?

That was when Harry became aware of all the grumbling around him. He must have woken his dorm mates from his nightmare when he had screamed Cedric's name. That was all he seemed to be doing lately; having nightmares and waking everyone up in the process. And lately it seemed even worse, as if instead of just having nightmares his life was now becoming one huge gigantic nightmare.

Each day he woke up from another nightmare about the night when Voldemort returned, or sometimes he would just see that stupid door again that he would wake up just before he got to see what was inside. Then he would have to go through meaningless lessons with his scar constantly burning while he wondered what the bloody hell Voldemort was up to and why he hadn't made any moves yet. Then he would have to endure Snape's daily torture and then be tormented by Umbridge and her bloody quill (literally). And also, if he was extremely unlucky, he would have to listen to Malfoy taunt him. Then finally he would make it to bed only to be greeted by more nightmares. His life was slowly and painfully turning into a living hell.

Harry heard Dean groan a few something feet away. "Wha's go'n on?" he said, his voice muffled from his pillow.

Someone pulled back the curtains and when Harry spotted the familiar head of red hair, he knew it was Ron. "Everything's fine," he said. "Harry just had another nightmare is all." He shot Harry a concerned look while Dean groaned again and attempted to bury his head back in his pillow and go to sleep. Neville was sitting up and rubbing his sleep-ridden eyes while Seamus shot Harry an annoyed look as he got up and picked up his blankets that had fallen on the ground.

"_Again?" _Seamus said in annoyance. "If Potter's going to continue wakin' us up in the middle a the night like this, then maybe he should sleep somewhere else."

Harry's anger flared at his dorm mate who he used to consider a friend and he was about to open his mouth to tell Seamus where exactly he thought _he _should go, but at that moment there came a loud knock on the dormitory door.

Ron stumbled toward the door and opened it to find McGonagall standing there in a nightgown and slippers. His eyes grew wide and he rubbed them to make sure he wasn't having some weird dream. "Professor…?" he asked uncertainly.

"Mr. Weasley," his Head of House began stiffly, obviously not very happy to be dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. "I'm sorry to wake you all—"

"We were already awake thanks to _someone," _Seamus pointed out not-so-subtly from the other side of the dorm. Harry glared and tried to stop himself from lunging for his wand and hexing him. Neville stared at him, aghast that he had dared interrupt McGonagall, especially when she looked this irritated.

McGonagall's nostrils flared and her lips, if it was even possible, pressed even thinner. "Professor Umbridge is requesting your presence, along with Mr. Potter and Mr. Longbottom in the Great Hall." By the tone of her voice it was obvious that she didn't like this request one little bit.

"Wait…me?" Neville spoke up, trying to stand up from his bed and tripping over his own feet in the process. He was surprised by McGonagall's request; he wasn't used to being wanted for something.

"Yes, Mr. Longbottom. You boys hurry up and get dressed. I expect to see you in the Great Hall." With that said, she slammed the door in Ron's face.

Ron turned to Harry. "So," he started, "what do you reckon the old toad wants now?"

Harry didn't have any idea but he knew that whatever it was it couldn't be good.

**xXxXx**

The Slytherins did not get a good wake up call that night. While Harry and Ron were making their way down from Gryffindor Tower, down in the dungeons all the Slytherins were rudely awoken from their slumber by Millicent Bulstrode's high-pitched shriek that was shrill enough that it would have a much better chance of breaking glass than even the Fat Lady's singing. She had been having trouble sleeping so she had journeyed down to the common room to have some time to herself for a while and had been horrorstruck by the sight that awaited her.

Red and gold; everywhere in the formally green and silver common room was red and gold. Red and gold paint was splattered all over the walls and the floors and the chairs. It was _everywhere. _Most impressive was the gigantic gold lion painted on the ceiling that had let out a deafening roar as soon as she had entered the common room. It was like those bloody Gryffindors had come and shit over _everything!_ Her scream had of course woken up the others and when they saw the sight of their common room, they completely _flipped. _Some of them even fainted.

So that's how the Slytherins found themselves all down in the common room at one in the morning, shouting and screaming themselves hoarse. Various profanities were being shouted along with exclamations such as "what the bloody hell!" and "those bloody Gryffindors!" and even an occasional "just wait, they'll see, I'll show them… the Cruciatus Curse should do nicely…" Amidst all the chaos, one blonde, blue-eyed boy was mysteriously absent. Among all the voices, the familiar drawling, sarcastic voice could not be heard.

"Excuse _me! _Pardon _me! _Draco? Dray! Excuse _me! _Has anyone seen my boyfriend? _Draco!"_

Pansy Parkinson elbowed her way through the crowd calling out for her "supposed" boyfriend, Draco Malfoy, who was the only one missing in the crowd. He was her "supposed" boyfriend because no one was actually sure if they were actually dating. Draco had taken Pansy to the Yule Ball and had even snogged her, but Draco had never treated Pansy like a girlfriend but she constantly insisted that they were dating. She constantly doted and attended to Draco's every need, following him around like a lost puppy dog. She acted more like his lap dog than his girlfriend. But despite that, here she was calling him her boyfriend, pushing through the crowds, her face still slightly pinched up in disgust because of the scene she had woken to in the common room.

That's when she spotted a familiar head of dark hair amidst the ground. "Blaise!" she cried out, quickening her pace to grab his right shoulder and spin him around to face her.

"Pansy?" he asked, raising a perfectly elegant eyebrow. Pansy always hated it when he did that. In fact, she actually didn't really like Blaise all that much at all, but he always seemed to know where Draco was, so she had to learn to deal with him.

"Have you seen Draco?" she asked him.

"Why? Looking for another chance for a lap dance?" he asked and she scowled at him.

"You're not funny," she told him. "But seriously, have you seen him?"

"No," he admitted reluctantly but truthfully. "I haven't seen him since last night."

"But you must have seen him in your guys' dormitory this morning!" she insisted.

"No actually, I didn't. He wasn't there." Blaise's eyebrows furrowed. In fact, now that he thought about it, it _was _rather weird. Draco had never been an early riser. So where in the bloody hell was he? Blaise sighed and decided to go looking for his sort-of friend. "I'll be back, Pansy," he said, pushing past her and heading in the direction of the boys' dormitories.

Pansy gaped at his retreating back. "Blaise, come back here! Don't you turn your back on me; I'm not finished with you yet!"

He ignored her.

Walking up the steps to the door labeled "Fifth Year Boys' Dormitories", he immediately scanned the beds for Draco's impossible-to-miss, platinum blonde hair. He scanned past Goyle's bed, Theo's, his own, and Crabbe's, before his eyes came to rest on Draco's on the far right. Draco's bed was perfectly made and usually this would indicate that the person didn't sleep in it, but Draco always managed to keep his bed completely made, the covers devoid of all creases. How he managed this Blaise didn't have the faintest idea. Draco was always so proper and Blaise often commented on how he should really pull that stick out of his arse. Needless to say, Draco never took kindly to this comment.

Blaise was about to turn away when he caught glimpse of something blonde out of the corner of his eye. Thinking it was Draco, he took a few paces closer.

But it wasn't Draco Malfoy, or at least, it didn't _look_ like him.

It was a small, blonde ferret.

**xXxXx**

_-all caused by Willard Strogenfeld who led the Samaritans to victory at the beginning of the 16__th__ Century in the most vicious and brutal battle over blood purity that the Wizarding World has ever seen, the losses totaling to hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides—_

"Did you see Eloise Midgeon with Justin Finch-Fletchley this morning?"

"No."

"Well, rumor has it that they're together. As in, _together _ together."

"No_ way!"_

"Yes, way! Hannah Abbott caught them _snogging _on the fourth floor corridor!"

"No!"

"_Yes!" _The two gossiping girls dissolved into a fit of hysterical giggles.

With a frustrated huff, Hermione slammed her _History of Magic _textbook closed with a heavy _thud! _ She was never going to get any studying done with Parvati and Lavender gossiping loudly and dissolving into fits of loud, girly giggles every few seconds. Unlike them, some people actually _cared_ about grades and class. It was after midnight for God's sake, shouldn't they be going to bed by now?

Hefting up her books and sending a annoyed glance at the closed curtains that concealed Parvati and Lavender from view, she walked over to her book bag and wiggled her textbook inside, stretching the seams of the bag as she attempted to squeeze the large book inside among all the other textbooks and various necessities, such as ink, parchment, quills, and her potion ingredients and cauldron. She absentmindedly frowned at the stretched material of the book bag before her, hoping that it wouldn't split open in the corridors and she would have to go off and buy a new one like she had thrice times before.

Trying to smooth out her frizzy, brown hair while stifling a yawn, she looked down at herself. She was still wearing her set of black school robes with her red and gold tie labeled _H. Granger _still placed securely around her neck. She had been studying all night, getting prepared for the years' upcoming lessons; she hadn't even changed, not realizing that it had gotten so late.

Hermione bent over and kneeled by her school trunk, starting to shift through all the contents in an effort to find a pair of pajamas. As she pulled out a white tank and a pair of purple-striped pajama pants, she heard another round of giggles coming from the other beds in the dorm, suggesting that Lavender had just revealed another juicy rumor that ninety nine point nine percent of the time turned out to be just that, a rumor. Hermione rolled her eyes.

There was a sudden knock on the dorm door and Lavender and Parvati let out squeals of terror. Hermione rolled her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that day. _Melodramatics._

Hermione strolled forward and turned the door handle, and was met with a very cranky-looking Ginny Weasley. She was wearing pink, poke-a-dotted pajama pants with an equally pink tee shirt that had _DIVA _printed across it in large, sparkling gold letters. She was looking a bit worse for wear standing there with her feet bare and her frizzy bed-head, red hair, looking only partly awake and as if she was about to collapse right there on the floor.

"Ginny? What are you doing here?" she appealed to the sleep-ridden girl.

Ginny's brown eyes peered up at her friend through her long lashes. "_Umbitch _requests our presence," she said, putting an unpleasant emphasis on the first word as her top lip curled in distaste.

Hermione's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Umbridge? What does she want?"

"No bloody clue," she grumbled, "but I for one, have half a mind not to listen."

Hermione sighed. "As much as I don't want to comply any of her requests, Gin, she has the Ministry eating out of the palm of her hand. It's probably best that we do what she says."

Ginny scowled. "I hate that you're so smart," she grumbled as they both headed off to the Great Hall.

**xXxXx**

"_Charlie!" _Bill burst into his younger brother's old room at the Burrow positively fuming, his face looking as red as a tomato. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU DO TO _MY HAIR?!"_

Charlie let out a startled yelp at his brother's loud yell, causing him to fall out of his bed and onto the floor. Blinking the sleep out of his blurry eyes, he looked up at his red-faced brother. And laughed.

And laughed.

And laughed.

He laughed until he was also red in the face and tears were streaming down his cheeks, doubled over and holding his side.

Bill stood in the doorway in his nightclothes looking as he usually did, red hair, freckles, and all, except for one thing; his hair. His normally long hair that his mother always nagged at him to cut was now cut short so that it was cropped and by the way he was glaring at Charlie, it was obvious the younger Weasley brother was responsible.

And by the way he was laughing on the floor, it was obvious that Charlie didn't notice that in about point five seconds he was about to be dead.

"Charlie, whatever you did to my hair, you better fix it _now!" _Bill said in a dangerous tone of voice.

"Don't—know—how!" Charlie choked out through peals of laughter.

Bill's eyes widened and looked about to bug out of his eye sockets. "YOU DON'T KNOW HOW?!" he screamed. Without warning, he launched himself at his brother. Charlie let out a squeak of surprise that sounded more like a choking sound because he had been trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard. He hurriedly tried to scramble away from where he lay sprawled out on the floor, but was too late as he felt Bill's fist connect with his face (not hard, mind you, but still hard enough to hurt). They brawled on the ground, rolling back and forth until suddenly both of them felt themselves being separated by a magical force. Now both sitting on the ground, Bill stood up and brushed off his robes while Charlie glared up at him, rubbing his sore nose.

Both of them turned to see who had disrupted them and found their parents and Kingsley looking down at them. Arthur was looking at his sons with only a twinge of disapproval while Kingsley's lips were twitching in an effort not to smile. As for Molly—the two boys cowered under her glare. If looks could kill, they would be nothing but a pile of ash on the floor. Her eyes were narrowed into slits and her face was bright red with her teeth bared. And the two boys even _swore _that they could see steam coming out of her ears. They both gulped and glanced at each other, knowing they were done for.

Molly opened her mouth to start yelling but at that moment Dumbledore walked into the room, instantly commanding all of the attention, wearing a grave expression. Immediately everyone silenced and they all forgot what they were arguing about, all of them focusing all of their attention on Dumbledore. Bill even forgot about his hair.

"What's the matter?" Bill asked worriedly. "Is someone hurt?"

Molly's hands leaped to her mouth. "Oh, please say it isn't so, Dumbledore!"

"It isn't so," Dumbledore said, and those who hadn't known let out breaths that they hadn't realized they had been holding.

Charlie's eyebrows furrowed. "What is it then?" he asked. "Has it got something to do with the Order?"

"No, Mr. Weasley, it has not, but it does have something to do with a Mr. Harry Potter."

Molly instantly felt worry bubble up inside her for the boy that was as good as another son to her. "Oh, Merlin, please tell me nothing has happened! He's alright isn't he?" she panicked, her eyes filling with tears.

"Do not fear, Molly, Harry is fine. But it seems that Delores Umbridge has struck again." Dumbledore heaved a great sigh. "She has somehow gotten a hold of a series of books that detail Harry's life at Hogwarts."

Everyone's mouth dropped open except Kingsley and Arthur, who were both wearing the same somber expressions as Dumbledore. They must have already known.

"But—But that's impossible!" Charlie protested. "No one could possibly know every little detail of his life, and even if it did, it must violate some kind of law about invasion of privacy! Right, Dad?" Charlie looked up to his dad who he thought would be likely to know since he worked at the Ministry, even if it was one of the lower departments. Bill looked to Arthur as well but he only shook his head and they visibly deflated.

"I'm not sure if there is a law against it, but if there is, it wouldn't matter anyway. The Ministry has decided to play by their own rules. Fudge will do anything to avoid the possibility that You-Know-Who has in fact returned, and that Umbridge woman is vile from what I've heard Remus say about her." Arthur had heard Remus talking to Sirius during one of the Order meetings about all the anti-werewolf laws she had passed.

Bill just shook his head in disbelief, wondering why Harry's life had to be so screwed up, while Charlie said a word that he usually would have never dared to repeat in front of his mother. Luckily, Molly was too busy fretting to reprimand him for it.

"Oh no, the poor dear! This is the last thing he needs after everything that poor boy has been through," she said, wringing her hands together. Looking up at Dumbledore, she asked, "Oh, surely there's something you could do about it, Albus!"

The twinkle was entirely absent from his eyes. "I'm afraid not, Molly," he said sadly. "The Ministry holds most of the power at Hogwarts now and there is nothing I can do to stop this." He almost added "even if I wanted to" to that sentence. Try as he would, he couldn't get the thought out of his mind that it might be a good thing if these books are read out loud. It would expose the truth; everyone would know that Voldemort was really back, and that way they could be more prepared for the upcoming war. But then Dumbledore immediately felt guilty about this thought; Harry was just a boy; a boy who had seen more darkness and death than any fifteen year old boy should be privy to. He already went through so many horrors; the last thing he needed was to relive them.

But still, the thought that had been planted into his mind refused to die. _It could all be for the Greater Good after all, _he thought, but then winced and immediately pushed that line of thought away. No, he shouldn't be thinking like that anymore, he told himself.

Charlie's voice cut through Dumbledore's unknown turmoil. "Why are you telling _us, _sir?" he asked.

Dumbledore inclined his head slightly. "A fair question, Mister Weasley," he praised him. "The answer to that has to do with where these mysterious books came. They have been sent back from the future—"(everyone gasped)"—and this future person, J.S.P., has included a list of people required to be at the reading. All of the Weasley family was on it."

Everyone was slightly shocked. "That must mean we still must be close with Harry in the future!" molly gushed. Charlie ignored her. His noise was wrinkled up in disgust when he turned to face the Headmaster and asked:

"Even _Percy?"_

All of the redheads immediately swiveled around to hear the answer to this question.

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, even Percy." This revelation was met with several loud, inappropriate exclamations from Charlie, and even Bill, who was usually the calm one, voiced several profanities. Arthur's face had become stony and Molly looked much like she wanted to cry. Kingsley stood there amidst it all, trying not to feel too uncomfortable amidst the furious Weasleys. Dumbledore merely put up a hand, and Charlie and Bill's shoutings stopped. Bill looked calm once again, although slightly upset while Charlie was absolutely seething.

"Percy will be present during the reading, so I suggest that you all try to put aside your differences, and try to get along. You shall take the Floo to the Great Hall; the others should already be waiting for you there. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go inform Remus and Sirius of these urgent developments."

"Were they also on the list, Professor?" Bill asked. Dumbledore nodded.

Molly turned to face Dumbledore. "But Sirius can't possibly come to the Great Hall! He would be thrown into Azkaban by the Ministry! Even if he came as an Animagus, he would still be endangering himself—he would be endangering Harry!"

Bill secretly thought that wasn't the only reason Molly didn't want Sirius around. He knew that his mother and Sirius had their differences—she believed that Sirius was rash and irresponsible and an unfit guardian for Harry. She was judging the man by his past deeds and although Bill thought this was unfair of her, he never said so, not wanting to be on the other end of his mother's temper.

"I am well aware that Sirius cannot be seen in public, Molly," the Headmaster informed her. "I will only be informing him of the recent events; he will not be coming with remus and the others to the Great Hall."

Molly breathed a sigh of relief and Bill and Charlie shared a look. They hadn't known Sirius long, but they knew him well enough that they knew he wasn't likely to take this sitting down.

**xXxXx**

Sirius sighed and brought the bottle of firewhiskey up to his lips for another taste. The liquid tasted bitter and it burned as it slid down his throat. He leaned back in the chair and set the bottle back on the table, looking upstairs and waiting for Dumbledore and Remus to emerge.

A few minutes earlier, Dumbledore and Kingsley had arrived using the Floo Network wanting to deliver what had seemed like some pretty important news. Dumbledore had then asked Remus if he could have a word with him privately, and much to Sirius' fury, he wasn't allowed to take part in the conversation.

Sirius scowled and directed all his bitterness and anger toward Dumbledore. This was all his fault! First he ordered Sirius to be locked up in this torturous hellhole, and refused to let Harry live with him even though he knew that it said on James and Lily's will that if anything should've happened to them, then Sirius would be Harry's rightful guardian. And now Dumbledore wasn't even letting him in on conversations! He felt completely useless, and he _hated _feeling useless.

"Hello, Sirius," Kingsley said, plopping down on the seat directly across from him. He had a bottle of unopened firewhiskey in his hand and Sirius assumed he got it from the cabinet in the kitchen. "How 'er ya doing?"

"I'm doing lousy," he replied in a monotone, not looking up from where he was tracing meaningless patterns in the dust that was on the table. "Do you know what they are talking about up there?" Sirius jerked his head in the direction of the staircase.

Kingsley pursed his lips together. "Afraid I'm not supposed to say, Sirius."

"But why _not?"_ Sirius whined, sounding much like an immature child.

"Dumbledore's orders."

Sirius felt his anger bubble up inside him toward the Headmaster. "I am _sick _and _tired_ of Dumbledore's damn _orders!" _he shouted, pounding his fist on the tabletop, making Kingsley jump back in his seat.

"Sirius," came Dumbledore's calm voice from the stairway. Normally his voice could calm anyone down, but it did nothing to reassure the restless ex-prisoner standing before him.

Sirius, knowing that Dumbledore wouldn't answer any of his questions, immediately turned toward Remus. "Well?" he asked bluntly. The werewolf in question was standing next to Dumbledore, looking much grimmer than he had previous minutes before. "What's happened?" Sirius asked urgently. "Is it about the Order? Has there been an attack? Is Harry alright?" he asked, fear and panic bubbling up inside him at his last question. If harry had gotten hurt he would never forgive himself…

"Harry is fine, Sirius," Dumbledore said. Sirius immediately released a breath of relief, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted from him. "Thank _Merlin…" _he muttered. But then he saw everyone's grim faces and sighed. "There's a 'but' coming, isn't there?"

Remus merely sighed, and Sirius took that to mean yes.

"Sirius," Remus began tentatively, not wanting to set off the ticking time bomb that was his best friend, "while it is true that Harry isn't hurt, something has happened with Umbridge." The werewolf couldn't help the disgust that Umbridge's name was spoken with; out of all the people he disliked the most, she was high up on the list. "Umbridge has found… a set of books that could help expose the truth. About you, about Voldemort, about everything."

Sirius couldn't help the hope rising up in his chest. Everyone would know the truth? He could be free? "Sorry, remus, but I'm failing to see the problem in this," the convict said. "If these books expose the truth, then what's so horrible about them?"

Remus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Because. The books are from harry's point of view. Which means they'll find out everything about him, even his own thoughts, not to mention the fact that Harry will be forced to relive all his worst experiences, including the night Voldemort returned."

Sirius swore. "He always does have the worst luck." And then: "So why have you told Remus this in private?" he directed his question at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore sighed. "There was a list of people who need to be present during the reading. Remus was one of them and so were you, but it would be impossible to—"

"—to allow me outside this godforsaken prison for even a few minutes, because it is in my 'best interests'," he sneered, and for a second he looked scarily like Snape.

"I am only trying to protect you, Sirius, for both our sakes." Dumbledore's voice was completely calm and it only served to fuel his anger.

"I DON'T NEED YOUR PROTECTION!" he yelled, violently spinning around and stomping his way into the parlor room.

"Sirius, wait," the werewolf uselessly tried to calm his best mate. "Let's just think about this rationally," he appealed as he and Dumbledore followed him.

Sirius just ignored him. He picked up a handful of Floo powder that was on the fireplace, and the two pairs of eyes widened. He held it over the fireplace as if about to drop it. he turned to Dumbledore. "Now, you either find some way to get me in the Great hall without being able to be harmed or carted off to prison, and if you don't, then I'm going to my godson no matter what, and you get to explain to Harry why he's now minus one more person in his life." A fierce fire was blazing in Sirius's eyes, and both the men knew that there was no getting him to back out of this.

"Those are your choices," Sirius told him. "Pick one."

**xXxXx**

Everyone in the great Hall who had been requested to report there was gaping at Umbridge as if she had just given birth to a litter of flying pigs. This was _not _happening. This _couldn't _be possible. They couldn't have been summoned here in the dead of night to read all about the Golden Boy.

Delores Umbridge, Cornelius Fudge, Amelia Bones, Percy Weasley, Minerva Mcgonagall, Albus Dumbledore, and Severus Snape were sitting in the front of the Great Hall in the professors' seats. Umbridge had a wide, gleeful smile on her face, having just explained about the mysterious books. McGonagall was glaring at Umbridge hatefully; her glare could have turned anything to stone. Dumbledore still wore the grave expression he had worn at the Weasleys, while Snape was sneering at nothing in particular. He had to listen to books all about that arrogant Potter?! Could the world show him no mercy?!

Apparently not.

Out of all of the House tables, Gryffindor was the one that had the most occupants. Sitting there was all of the Weasleys (besides Percy), harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Sirius Black. All of them were looking shocked and astonished (besides the ones who already knew) at Umbridge's revelation. What gave her the right to do such a thing?! Harry, surprisingly, wasn't looking shocked. He just looked plain furious. Staring at Umbridge in that moment he thought that he had never hated someone so much in his life. Except maybe voldemort and Wormtail, but she definitely came close.

How. Dare. She.

Harry tried to catch Dumbledore's eye, to see what he thought about all this, but once again, Dumbledore wouldn't catch his gaze. _Why won't he look at me?!_

Seated at the Ravenclaw table was Luna Lovegood, staring off into space with an oddly dreamy look on her face as if she wasn't there at all, but somewhere else entirely.

At the Hufflepuff table was Tonks and Remus. Tonks, her hair the usual violent shade of pink, had looked rather lonely sitting there alone, so Remus had gladly offered to keep her some company. Sirius had given him a superior _knowing _look which Lupin had defiantly ignored.

At the Slytherin table there was also only one person: a grumpy Draco Malfoy. He hadn't been happy before when Blaise had had to go find McGonagall to transfigure him back so he wasn't a ferret anymore; he would have hexed those stupid Weasel twins into oblivion for degrading and humiliating him in such a way if the Headmaster hadn't intervined. It was obvious that the prank played on the Slytherin dorms was their work (how did they even know where the Slytherin dormitories _were?) _. And it most definitely didn't help matters that he had been forced to sit here with people lesser than him and listen to books on _Potter's _life, of all people! As if the Gryffindor Golden Boy did anything Draco remotely cared about. He would much rather be sleeping.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" a sudden shout came from the Gryffindor table, and no one was surprised to find that it was Harry Potter. "YOU CAN'T JUST READ MY LIFE OUTLOUD LIKE SOME BLOODY CHILDREN'S BOOK! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME SIT HERE AND LISTEN TO THIS!" Harry stopped his yelling and stood up abruptly, striding quickly to the doors and turning the handle, only to find that it was locked.

Umbridge stood up. "Mr. Potter! Sit back down this instant!" she demanded.

"Let me out," harry said, his breathing heavy and labored. His voice was completely calm but laced with a deadly undertone that somehow managed to be a whole lot scarier than all of the yelling.

"No," Umbridge replied firmly, every bit of false sweetness gone from her voice.

Seconds ticked by and no one said a word. Harry stood there staring at the door, a fierce fire blazing in his eyes. Eventually he made his way back to the Gryffindor table and sat back down next to his godfather excepting defeat. Dumbledore had put some sort of spell over Sirius that protected him from being harmed and the Ministry members had causd an uproar about it, but could do nothing. The people who did not know of Sirius's innocence cast him furtive glances now and again, looking frightened to be sitting in the same capacity as a murderer.

Umbridge cleared her that and picked up a book that looked to be about a few hundred pages. The words **Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone **were emblazoned on the front. And with that, the great old toad opened the book and read out, "**CHAPTER ONE: THE BOY WHO LIVED**"

Harry groaned at the title and let his head fall with a thump onto the table, his body slumping. Today was going to be a long day.

**AN: I know this has been done several times before, but I just had to do one of my own! I didn't expect the 1****st**** chapter to turn out so long, but oh well, I like it. Just so you know I am pretty sure that all the couples will be cannon. There will be a lot of Sirius/Harry bonding (not slash, because that's just… ewww) and this story will eventually contain Good!Draco. I will probably add more characters to read the books as they get farther on into the series but for now, this is it **

**LEAVE A REVIEW! LEAVE A REVIEW! LEAVE A REVIEW!**


	2. The Boy Who Lived

_**The Boy Who Lived**_

_Umbridge cleared her throat and picked up a book that looked to be about a few hundred pages. The words __**Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone **__were emblazoned on the front. And with that, the great old toad opened the book and read out, "__**CHAPTER ONE: THE BOY WHO LIVED**__"_

_Harry groaned at the title and let his head fall with a thump onto the table, his body slumping. Today was going to be a long day._

Hermione and Ron shot Harry sympathetic looks; they both knew that Harry hated his fame, despite the fact that Ron tended to forget this fact a lot. Sirius's lip twitched at Harry's frustration; that was where Harry and James were different, he mused. James would have been basking in the attention while Harry, like Lily, just wanted out of the spotlight.

Some of the people (such as Snape and Draco) looked confused. Surely Potter loved his fame? Shouldn't he be delighted a chapter was named after him?

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley**

Harry groaned and resisted the very strong urge to bang his head on the table. _The Dursleys? Why? What had he ever done to deserve this? Couldn't they just leave them out of this book and skip to when he got to Hogwarts?_

People shot him curious looks. Who were these 'Dursley' people, and why did Harry seem to dislike them?

**of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal,**

The Weasley twins made faces of distaste. Who wanted to be normal? Where was the fun in that?

**thank you very much.**

"You're welcome!" Fred and George chorused. The occupants at the Gryffindor table snickered slightly.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. **

"They don't seem like very nice people," Luna commented dreamily from the Ravenclaw table. Not sure who the girl was speaking to, Harry gave a slight nod before turned his back on the slightly loony girl. Her dreamy eyes and the way she seemed to stare at nothing but everything at the same time sort of creeped him out, to be honest.

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm call Grunnings, which made drills.**

"What are 'drills'?" Ron asked with a rather confused expression on his face.

"They are a type of Muggle instruction tool used to nail things together mechanically instead of using a hammer," Hermione told him, rolling her eyes and musing on how he should have taken Muggle Studies. It would have been better than Divination. Actually, scratch that; _anything _would have been better than Divination.

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache.**

Almost everyone made a face at that. They sounded absolutely _charming._

**Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual about of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors.**

This time it was Snape who made the face, although luckily no one noticed. Yes, that definitely sounded like Petunia; she certainly hadn't changed not that he had expected her to.

_Although she probably changed her opinion on wizards, _the Potions Master thought. _No doubt she treats Potter like royalty._

If only he knew how wrong he was.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

Harry snorted. The only reason they thought Dudley was so _sweet _was because they didn't know he walked around every night beating up little kids. Of course, Uncle Vernon probably thought it would be good practice and Aunt Petunia would only be concerned with her perfect image being tarnished.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

Harry gritted his teeth and he sighed. Of course they wouldn't want anyone to know about his family; anyone even a smidgeon like him was considered abnormal and freakish. Unbeknownst to him, Snape was also thinking along those same lines.

Sirius was gritting his teeth and his hands were clenched into fists. He remembered meeting Lily's sister the Christmas after they had graduated. Him, Lily, and Prongs had went to the Evans' for Christmas (Remus was too ill because of the approaching full moon and Peter was visiting his sick mum). Petunia wasn't supposed to have been there but she had felt the need to make an appearance to show off her _lovely new wedding ring. _A fight between the sisters had taken place that had ended with James having to comfort a distraught Lily. Needless to say, it wasn't the merriest of Christmases.

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she did have a sister, **

Molly was horrified. This woman sounded terrible! How could you just cast aside your own family like that? Looking around at her own family, it was completely unthinkable for her.

**because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband**

Remus glowered at the book as if it were its own fault and Sirius actually _snarled _causing several people to inch farther away from him.

_James is not good for nothing! _The Marauders thought furiously.

**were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.**

"That's not even a word," Hermione grumbled. Harry and Ron looked at each other and their lips twitched into fond smiles; it was a very _Hermione-ish _thing to point out.

"Perhaps the Wrackspurts have gotten into his brain," Luna commented. Hermione looked at her as if she were insane. She opened her mouth to say something but before she could, Umbridge continued reading.

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too; but they had never even seen him.**

Molly once again found herself taken aback. These people had never even seen their own nephew? What kind of family were they?

Dumbledore was starting to get an uneasy feeling about harry's relatives, and, noticing his uneasiness, McGonagall sent him a glare. She had told him not to leave the boy there, but of course he hadn't listened to her as he should have.

**This boy is another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"Yeah, well we don't want Harry mixing with a child like Dudley!" Ron exclaimed, remembering meeting Harry's fat cousin the summer before fourth year. Several people nodded in agreement. Even though they hadn't met him and hadn't heard much about him, they could tell from Harry's reactions that he was a brat.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the grey, dull Tuesday morning our story starts,**

"Didn't it already start? I'm confused, Forge!"

His twin nodded in agreement, pretending to look absolutely perplexed.

Harry meanwhile, was more worried about the book saying the story was starting. Would it tell about his life at the Dursleys? Would everyone find out about the cupboard?

**there was nothing about the cloudy skies outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would be happening all over the country.**

Remus's mind clung to that thought. _Mysterious things happening all over the country…?_

**Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,**

"Why, oh, why…" Fred wailed dramatically.

"…the most boring tie!" George finished.

**and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

And so it was confirmed. Dudley Dursley was a brat.

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

"Unobservant, stupid Muggles," Draco grumbled to himself. Harry ignored him but unfortunately couldn't disagree with his rival in this case; the Dursleys were rather stupid.

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.**

Harry was surprised that Dudley would ever waste food, even as a baby.

Several people in the great Hall were muttering things along the lines of "spoiled brat".

**"Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house.**

"He's _encouraging him?" _Molly cried out disbelievingly. The Weasley children shared looks of horror, wondering what their mother would do if they ever behaved like that. It would _not _be pretty, that was for sure.

**He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive. It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar – a cat reading a map.**

All the students immediately turned to look at McGonagall (except Malfoy who had now taken to picking at his nails in boredom). She glared at them and they immediately looked away.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen – then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight.**

"Wha-?" Neville wondered out loud. "How did the map disappear?"

"It's actually really brilliant, Neville…" George began.

"…absolutely, splendidly spiffing…" Fred continued.

"It's called MAGIC," they sang in unison, sounding as if it was the most wonderous thing in the world. A few people snorted and Neville's face flushed pink in embarrassment at the obvious answer.

**What could he have been thinking of?**

"You mean he actually knows _how _to think?" Ron quipped, and a few people cracked smiles.

**It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back.**

Yep, definitely McGonagall. All the students and former students knew that the only person who could stare that long without breaking eye contact was McGonagall.

**As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive – no, **_**looking **_**at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.**

"Unless you're a cat named Professor McGonagall!" the twins said.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

Sirius's head fell to the table and he started to pretend to snore. The people who knew of his innocence looked amused at his antics, while some of the others were starting to have a few doubts that he was guilty of the crime accused. Was this normal behavior for a mass murderer?

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

Ron huffed. "And what's wrong with cloaks?"

"Muggles don't wear cloaks, Ron," Hermione said, rolling her eyes as if she thought that to be obvious. Ron was once again left feeling fairly stupid.

**"Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes —**

Draco—who hadn't really been listening all that much—froze when Professor Umbridge read that part. He glared at the book as if he thought that could physically damage the stupid Muggle. He thought _they _dressed funny, did he? Did he _see _what their kind wore?

**the getups you saw on young people!**

Dumbledore thought about this accusation. He was fairly certain he wasn't included in that 'young people' remark.

**He supposed this was some stupid new fashion.**

Draco was once again visibly ruffled by this statement. What right did Muggles have to judge them, their superiors?

**He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by.**

Ron and Draco both hmphed at that statement. Then their heads whipped around and they glared at each other.

Meanwhile, Remus was contemplating something. Why would wizards be out and about in public in cloaks, right out in the open where Muggles could see them? Something really big must have happened…

Suddenly his blood ran cold when a sudden realization struck him. It would make sense that it was _that _night, due to the chapter title. Out of the corner of his eye he glanced over at the Gryffindor table at Sirius. He hadn't seemed to notice anything was up yet.

Tonks saw Remus's face get considerably paler and she glanced at him. "Are you alright?" she asked, but he just shook her off, shaking his head slightly.

**They were whispering excitedly. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak!**

Ron gagged and made a face at green, a Slytherin color.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Slytherin," he merely said, casting a dark look toward Malfoy.

Hermione rolled her eyes in exasperation, but Harry was suddenly struck with a worrying thought: What would Ron say when he learned that the Sorting Hat tried to Sort him into Slytherin?

**The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously collecting for something… yes, that would be it**.

Draco yawned, his head drooping on the table, still suffering from lack of sleep. This was boring; what did these stupid Muggles have to do with Potter anyway?

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills. Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning.**

"Why?" Charlie asked.

_**He **_**didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead.**

"What is so amazing about an owl?" Neville asked curiously. He didn't expect his question to be answered, but, surprisingly, it was.

"Well, nonmagicals aren't accustomed to seeing owls," Hermione began in her I-just-swallowed-my-textbook voice. Many people groaned, knowing they were about to get a long speech about Muggles and their relationship with owls. Neville remained oblivious, seeming genuinely curious.

"You see," Hermione was continuing, "the only reason wizards even have owls is to deliver their mail. And yes, they are useful in other ways too, but that is the main reason wizards keep them as pets. But Muggles don't use owls to send letters."

"Then what do they use?"

"They use the postal system. They put their letter in something outside their house called a "mailbox". The mailman picks the letters up and is in charge of shipping them to the right location," she told Neville. Arthur Weasley was also listening adeptly, and had gotten out parchment and was scribbling away with great interest as the Muggleborn explained Muggle customs.

**Most of them had never seen an owl even at night time.**

Someone in the room muttered "ridiculous" although not rudely so, just disbelieving.

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

Sirius turned to his godson. "And you _live _with these people?" he asked incredulously. He had meant his comment to be amusing, but he frowned when Harry merely sunk lower in his seat in his spot next to him. Surely his relatives couldn't be that bad?

But then Sirius started remembering. He remembered that night in Harry's third year, when they had all emerged from the Whomping Willow. He remembered how he had asked Harry to live with him, and without a second thought, he had immediately agreed:

"_Are you insane? Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?"_

How had he not realized what Harry said? What thirteen year old would immediately agree to live with someone he barely knew, someone only mere minutes ago he had thought to be responsible for his parents murder?

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs **

Harry blinked. _What? _ Had he just heard that right?

**and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery. **

He nodded. The world was normal again; that definitely sounded more like Uncle Vernon.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard —" **

**" —yes, their son, Harry —"**

Sirius turned deathly pale, suddenly looking as if he was going to faint when he realized what day this was. It was the day after _that _night. He really should have known, due to the chapter title. Remus had also paled, his fears being confirmed. Tonks gasped when she realized what day it was, now understanding why the werewolf was so tense. Harry tensed as well, now knowing as well what day it was.

The atmosphere in the room had went from humorous to unbelievably tense in less than a second.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

"If only," Harry muttered darkly. This statement caused Hermione to reach around Ron who was sitting next to Harry on his left, to smack him hard on the back of the head. Harry rubbed the back of his head and glared at his friend. "Ow, 'Mione! What was that for?!"

"You should never wish death on anybody!" she scolded, sounding much like Mrs. Weasley.

"You say that now," Harry muttered, although unfortunately those closest to him (Sirius, Ron, Hermione) heard him.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it. He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid.** **Potter wasn't such an unusual name.** **He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew **_**was **_**called Harry. He had never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"Harold Potter," Fred said, pretending to stroke an imaginary beard.

"Harvey Potter," George tried.

They looked at each other and shook their heads, apparently deciding that neither name was appropriate.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if **_**he'd **_**had a sister like that…**

Harry felt a hot surge of anger for the mother he had never known. Like Uncle Vernon was one to talk; his sister was a thousand times worse than Lily Potter!

**But all the same, those people in cloaks…**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**"Sorry," he grunted,**

Harry gaped. He actually knew that word?

**as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell.**

Many people wondered if this was their Charms' professor. It sounded a lot like him.

Luna smiled; Professor Flitwick, her head of house, was always cheery. He always told people off when they picked on her.

**It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak.**

"Better than green," Harry thought he heard Ron mutter.

**He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!** **Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!" And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

Sirius's face turned stony. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't understand how anyone could rejoice after the deaths of James and Lily Potter. It was uncomprehendible.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

The twins both whipped their heads around to stare at each other in open-mouthed shock. Then, the two redheads promptly fainted.

Molly looked at her sons. Had they actually _fainted _over that? Oh, _honestly, _they were completely ridiculous!

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw—and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

Draco was getting even more tired as the book went on. His eyelids started to flutter closed and he tried to conceal a large yawn. Surely a little rest wouldn't hurt…

"**Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

**Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems**

"What a creative name," Ginny commented sarcastically with a snort.

**with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!").** **Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

"_**And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?" **_

"_**Well, Ted," said the weatherman,**_

_Dad? _Tonks wondered. Her father had told her that he used to go undercover as a newscaster during the First War so he could report the mysterious deaths that were Voldemort and the Death Eaters doing. It seemed very possible that it was him.

_**"I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars!**_

McGonagall rolled her eyes. She knew that had been Dedalus Diggle—he'd never had much sense.

_**Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**_"

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…**

This was why wizards shouldn't be so careless! McGonagall fumed. If this idiotic Muggle could put the pieces together and figure it out, who knew who else could!

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?" As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

Snape sneered. Of course. The only reason Petunia really ever hated Lily was because she was jealous that Lily was a witch and she wasn't.

**"No," she said sharply, "Why?" **

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…" **

**"**_**So?**_**" snapped Mrs. Dursley. **

**"Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… **_**her**_** crowd."**

Ron and Hermione glanced at each other. _Her _crowd? Was this how they treated Harry as well?

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son — he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?" **

**"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

**"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"I think Harry is a lovely name!" Ginny said, and then blushed as red as her hair. Her brothers snickered at her.

**"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly."Yes, I quite agree."**

"Oh shut up, you fat walrus!"

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

"Mister Malfoy!" Umbridge snapped, looking up from the book.

Draco, who had fallen asleep at his table, woke so suddenly, his head snapping up, that he lost his balance and nearly fell off his seat. Nearly everyone laughed at Malfoy's rare moment of not being completely composed. His pale cheeks tinted pink in embarrassment and he glared at everyone.

"There will be no sleeping," the toad told him. "We all must listen to Potter's life."

Draco sighed. All he wanted to do was sleep! 

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"He can't even say the word 'wizard'!" Molly cried in outrage.

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters **_**were **_**involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't affect **_**them**_…

_I wish, _Harry thought. He wished Dumbledore had never given him to his aunt and uncle. He would have much rather grown up with Sirius or the Weasleys, or some other wizarding family. Then he could have grown up knowing he was magical instead of being lied to his entire life.

**How very wrong he was.**

People shared uneasy looks.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.** **Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice.**

"It's Dumbledore!" the twins shouted. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in amusement.

**This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

"Oh, I did, I just didn't care," he said unconcernedly. Both Umbridge and Fudge, who had not said anything so far, glowered at him.

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known." **

"Should have known what?" George asked. Fred shrugged. Everyone else ignored them.

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

"Cool!" Ron exclaimed. "I want one!"

**He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, **

"It is actually called a Deluminator," Dumbledore told everyone, drawing it out of the pocket in his cloak. It did indeed look exactly as it was described in the book. "I had some trouble coming up with a name for it but finally decided on Deluminator."

"Wicked," Ron breathed, staring at it in amazement.

**until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it. "Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

The twins high-fived. "Knew it!"

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one.**

"You too, Professor?" Ron said in despair, referring to the green cloak.

**Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled. "How did you know it was me?" she asked. **

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

"**You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"No one said you had to sit there," Charlie said cheekily. McGonagall tried to look disapproving but failed. He was one of her favorite students after all.

"**All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

Once again, Sirius found himself unbelievably angry. How could Dumbledore even _think _about celebrating when Lily and James were dead?

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

"Danger!" chorused the Weasley twins.

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

McGonagall nodded her head, agreeing with her past self. He shouldn't have been so careless.

Sirius was shocked. He had been rather good friends with Dedalus; Dedalus must have heard that the Potters were dead so why had he been celebrating?

**"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently."We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

_Eleven years? _Harry mentally gasped. He really hoped the Second War didn't turn out to be that long.

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really **_**has **_**gone, Dumbledore?"**

_I wish, _Harry thought.

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

**"A **_**what**_**?"**

"**A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

McGonagall rolled her eyes. Him and his sweets!

"**No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I even if You-Know-Who **_**has **_**gone —"**

"**My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: **_**Voldemort**_**."**

Harry nodded in agreement to Dumbledore's words, ignoring the flinches around the room. Fear of the name only increased fear of the thing itself.

**Professor McGonagall flinched,**

Just as she had done a few seconds before.

**but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

"Well said, sir," Hermione said.

Dumbledore nodded at her. "Thank you, Miss Granger."

**"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring**

The way she was looking right now.

**. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, **_**Voldemort**_**,**

*Flinch*

**was frightened of."**

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"Only because you are too noble to use them, sir," Luna said.

"**Only because you're too — well —**_**noble **_**to use them."**

The twins gasped. "Loony thinks like McGonagall!"

Luna put her head down at being called "Loony". She was used to it. Ginny slapped her brothers on the backs of their heads for insulting her friend. She then got up from her seat to go and sit by Luna, who smiled at her in thanks.

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

Everyone made faces. That was clearly more than they wanted to know.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the **_**rumors **_**that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

Remus and Sirius sucked in a sharp breath. Tonks grabbed Remus's hand tightly in her own as an effort to offer him some sort of comfort.

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

**"What they're **_**saying**_**," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters.** **The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're —**_**dead."**_

Everyone inclined their heads in respect and remembrance except for Umbridge and Malfoy. Malfoy looked for a second as if he might bow his head as well, but then changed his mind.

Sirius felt tears gathering in his eyes but he quickly blinked them away before anyone could notice. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't stop thinking that Lily and James were dead because of him.

A sad-looking Harry glanced at his godfather in concern. "Sirius?" he inquired.

"I'm fine, Harry," he said, offering his godson a sad smile that wasn't very reassuring.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**"Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…"**

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know… I know…" he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone.**"

Everyone turned to look at him and Harry sunk lower into his seat.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

"**It's — it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?" **

**"We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

_Which means he knows but he's not telling, _Harry thought.

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles.**

"McGonagall's crying?" Fred asked. "You mean she's actually human?" McGonagall sniffed angrily and Fred cowered back, sensing danger.

"Fredrick Gideon Weasley! That is completely insensitive!" Molly scolded.

**Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"Not true," Sirius spoke up. Everyone swiveled around to look at him. "Those aren't his only living blood relatives." Harry looked up at Sirius. What did he mean?

"James' mother, your grandmother, Harry, was a Black."

There were some gasps. Harry's mouth dropped open.

"That's right," Sirius continued, "Dorea Potter _nee Black." _He stared at Dumbledore as if daring him to make a comment. "Which makes him, by extension, related to all Blacks. Dorea Potter, cousin of Cygnus Black, father of Andromeda, Bellatrix, and Narcissa, cousins of Sirius Orion Black, aka _me." _Sirius seemed immensely satisfied with all the staggered expressions. Harry was shocked, as was Draco after hearing Sirius mention his mother.

"I'm related to you?!" Harry asked Sirius at the same time Draco exclaimed "I'm related to _him?!"_

Sirius ignored the Malfoy Heir and instead addressed Harry. "Yes, you are." He turned to Dumbledore. "So if it's the blood wards you're worried about, Harry would have been fine left in my care as Lily and James would have wanted," he said fiercely.

"But Mr. Black," Amelia Bones spoke up, "pardon my bluntness, but weren't you in Azkaban at the time?"

"Yes, so, I reluctantly admit that he couldn't have stayed with me but he has other blood relations!" Sirius insisted.

"Mum would have been happy to take him in," Tonks interjected.

"Sirius, I assure you that Harry staying with the Dursleys was nessecary," Dumbledore told him.

The Animagus looked much like he wanted to protest but stayed silent, giving Dumbledore his best 'we-will-talk-about-this-later' look.

Harry was still stunned by the news that he was related to Sirius while Draco was stunned he was related to Potter.

**"You don't mean – you **_**can't **_**mean the people who live **_**here**_**?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four."Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets.**

"Brat," Ginny murmured.

**Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"Thanks for trying, Professor," Harry said with a sad smile.

"**It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older.**

They could have, but they didn't. Instead they chose to keep him ignorant of his magical heritage, making him believe that he was an abnormal freak… Harry would never forget the look on the Dursleys' faces when he did something they considered 'freakish'. It was one of fear and absolute loathing.

**I've written them a letter."**

"_A letter?" _Molly asked shrilly. "Did you honestly think you could explain all this in a letter, Albus?"

Meanwhile Harry was thinking about the letter. Had his aunt still kept it after all these years? Was there some way he could get ahold of it?

"**A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future —**

Harry groaned. "There isn't is there?"

McGonagall shook her head and Harry sighed in relief.

Once again, people were stricken on how the Boy Who Lived seemed not to like his fame.

**there will be books written about Harry —**

"You got that right," Harry said, glaring at the book in Umbridge's hands.

**every child in our world will know his name!" **

"**Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

Some people found their anger at Dumbledore lessening. They supposed that was an alright reason, although it definitely wasn't reason enough.

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

"You better not be," Molly growled.

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

**"You think it —**_**wise**_**— to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid with my life," Harry said, feeling slightly offended on Hagrid's behalf.

**"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

He blinked as some people sniggered at him.

"**I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

Sirius felt a smile spread across his face. It was his motorcycle! Did Hagrid still have it? he wondered.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so **_**wild**_— **long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins.**

By now everyone knew that this was Hagrid.

**In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"**Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

"From me!" Sirius said proudly. Remus rolled his eyes at him.

"**Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

"**No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir — house was almost destroyed,**

Sirius shuttered. He remembered the once cozy home in Godric's Hallow, and the horror he had felt that night when he came across it blasted into smithereens.

**but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

All the girls cooed at him and Harry turned red in embarrassment.

**"Is that where —?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

Harry looked at him hopefully. Could he?

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground."**

Sirius chuckled. "Ah, the famous London Underground story."

"**Well — give him here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with."**

_Get this over with?! _The words rang through many people's minds disbelievingly as they glared at Dumbledore.

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"I take offense to that!" Sirius said immediately without thinking. Remus face-palmed himself.

"And why exactly would you take offense to that, Mister Black?" Amelia Bones asked from her seat between Fudge and McGonagall. She regarded him suspiciously through thoughtful eyes.

"Erm, I like dogs?" Sirius told her none-too-eloquently, though it came out as more of a question than an answer.

Madame Bones didn't say anything else, but she filed her suspicions away for farther contemplating later. 

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it —Lily an' James dead — an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles…"**

Harry smiled. It was nice to know that Hagrid cared about his mum and dad, and had liked him for more reason that just because he was the _Boy Who Lived. _Although he was already almost completely positive about this, it was nice for it to be confirmed.

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found,"**

"That wasn't very sensitive, Professor," Charlie said, and McGonagall had the decency to look ashamed.

**Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two.**

Sirius glared and was about to open his mouth to yell, but Mrs. Weasley beat him to the punch.

"YOU JUST LEFT HIM ON THE _DOORSTEP? _IN NOVEMBER?! HE MUST HAVE BEEN FREEZING; HE WAS JUST A BABY; HE COULD HAVE GOTTEN HYPERTHERMIA; HE COULD HAVE DIED!"

Many people were covering their ears from the sheer volume of Molly's yells. With those last words _'you could have died' _the Golden Trio were reminded of Mrs. Weasley's Howler back in second year. Molly was continuing:

"LILY AND JAMES HAD JUST _DIED, _YOU-KNOW-WHO HAD JUST BEEN DEFEATED! THE DEATH EATERS WERE ON A RAMPAGE; THEY WOULD HAVE GLADLY WANTED TO GET REVENGE ON THE PERSON WHO DEFEATED THEIR MASTER, AND YOU JUST LEAVE HARRY, A DEFENSELESS BABY, ON A DOORSTEP WHERE ANYONE COULD HAVE COME ALONG AND KILLED HIM, OR WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"

Sirius closed his mouth as Molly finished her rant. She had gotten his point across well. He would of said the same thing, along with a lot of swear words that weren't for children's ears.

Minerva was looking ashamed, feeling guilty about not saying something to Albus that night. Dumbledore was defiantly refusing to meet any of their angry gazes.

Amelia Bones, holding a piece of parchment and a quill, wrote down _'Dumbledore leaves Baby Harry Potter on doorstep'. _She would write things down that she thought was suspicious or that she thought people should need to be punished for, just so she could keep track.

**For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"No, not the twinkle!" the Weasley twins cried. Faint smiles appeared on some people's faces and the atmosphere lightened slightly.

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

Celebrations?! It was true that Voldemort had disappeared, but they were all acting as if the Potters hadn't died at all! Many people found this very disrespectful to the Potters' memory.

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away.**

Sirius scowled. "I never did get it back," he said bitterly, his thoughts drifting into darker ones such as Peter and Azkaban.

**G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir." **

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer.**

"Deluminator," Ron corrected, still looking awed by the object.

**He clicked it once and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

Molly glowered at the mention of Dumbledore leaving Harry on the doorstep.

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured.**

_I'm going to need it._

**He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him **

The girls cooed again. It was getting rather annoying.

**and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous,**

Ignorance was bliss, as the saying went. It was completely true this time.

**not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley…**

Sirius glowered.

**He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!"**

Harry sighed. "And so it begins," he said. Some of the adults glanced at each other sheepishly. They _had _done that.

"That is the end of the chapter," Umbridge said. He handed the book to the Minister, who apparently got to read next because he was sitting to the right of her.

He took the book from her reluctantly and cleared his throat. "**CHAPTER TWO: THE VANISHING GLASS**"

"Oh, it sounds like we get to learn about your accidental magic," Tonks said excitedly, smiling at him. She still hadn't let go of Remus's hand, which Sirius hadn't failed to notice.

Harry nodded, but then, with a feeling of dread in his stomach, he remembered the snake and how he had spoken Parseltongueto it. He gulped. _Uh oh_.

**AN: Okay, there is the first chapter of the Sorcerer's Stone! I tried to put in as much comments as possible but I can never really come up with a lot of things they would say for the first part. (By the way, I think I spelled Parseltongue wrong. Did I? Does anyone know how to spell it?) Thanks for reviewing; it means a lot to me to know that you are reading my story and liking it.**

**LEAVE A REVIEW! LEAVE A REVIEW! LEAVE A REVIEW! **


	3. The Vanishing Glass

_**The Vanishing Glass**_

"_That is the end of the chapter," Umbridge said. He handed the book to the Minister, who apparently got to read next because he was sitting to the right of her._

_He took the book from her reluctantly and cleared his throat. "__**CHAPTER TWO: THE VANISHING GLASS**__"_

"_Oh, it sounds like we get to learn about your accidental magic," Tonks said excitedly, smiling at him. She still hadn't let go of Remus's hand, which Sirius hadn't failed to notice._

_Harry nodded, but then, with a feeling of dread in his stomach, he remembered the snake and how he had spoken Parseltongue__to it. He gulped._ Uh oh.

A lot of the students leaned forward in interest (excluding Malfoy, of course) at the mention of accidental magic. The students were wondering what kind of accidental magic he had performed as a kid and how it was similar to theirs, especially Hermione. Being a Muggleborn, she was interested about what Harry had thought about when he first used magic, and how he had reacted to finding out he was a wizard. (Harry had told her and Ron that his relatives hadn't told him he was a wizard, but he had never gone into too much detail on his home life.)

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.**

"What?" George asked disbelievingly.

"That is so _boring," _Fred commented despairingly.

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets**

Several people snorted. "Is that—" Ron began.

"Dudley?" Harry said. "Yeah."

Ron began to snigger and Harry smiled, although it was only half-heartedly. He was worried about how Sirius and Lupin (especially Sirius) would react to him being a Parseltongue. After all, several people considered it to be the mark of a Dark wizard. Would his godfather think so as well?

**but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle,**

"What is a 'bilsicle?" Mr. Weasley asked. He had a bit trouble pronouncing the name which most people found a bit ironic. He _was _the Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department; shouldn't he know all this already?

**on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game**

Mr. Weasley opened his mouth to undoubtedly ask what a computer was but Molly smacked him on the back of the head sternly.

"Now is _not _the time, Arthur!"

**with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"Why aren't there any pictures of you?" Remus asked curiously.

"Erm… I don't like my picture taken?"

Remus nodded at Harry, trying to ignore the growing feeling of dread in his stomach.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there,**

"Unfortunately," said boy muttered darkly.

**asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

Snape winced, remembering Petunia's shrill voice. He almost pitied Potter—the key word being _almost._

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

Harry flinched in remembrance, rubbing his ear as if he could hear her voice right now. Other people frowned at the book; that wasn't a very nice way to wake your nephew up.

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

**"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove.**

"Wow, Harry, you must have really good hearing if you can hear that from all the way upstairs," Ron commented, slightly impressed, but then frowned when Harry merely bit his lip nervously, saying nothing.

The Weasley twins frowned. They remembered in Harry's second year how they had gone into the cupboard under the stairs to get Harry's trunk and broomstick and such. They also remembered seeing a small mattress in the corner of the small room. Was it possible…? But no, it couldn't be…

**He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

Sirius smiled. "It wasn't a dream, Harry," he told him, affectionately ruffling his godson's hair.

"I know that now," Harry said, struggling to no avail to get his hair to lay flat.

"That is quite an impressive memory you have there, Mister Potter," Amelia commented.

"Thank you," Harry replied with a polite nod as Umbridge and Fudge glared at their colleague for daring to compliment Potter.

"You remembered that from when Hagrid dropped you off at the Dursleys?" Hermione asked, amazed. She couldn't remember anything before the age of five.

The raven-haired boy shrugged, honestly not remembering now. "I don't know, I guess."

"It could have been another memory," Sirius suggested, and then went on to explain when Harry looked at him curiously. "When you were a baby, Lily and James would go out a lot and I would stay there with you. Sometimes I took you for a ride on my motorcycle," he said with a reminiscent smile. His words made Harry feel warm inside. He was happy to know he might still have some memories of his parents and Sirius, as vague as they might be.

Sirius laughed and turned to Harry as a certain memory struck him. "I remember one time when I took you on my motorcycle. Your mother was coming home, and when—" but Sirius suddenly stopped in mid-sentence and gulped as he caught sight of Molly Weasley's deadly glare. Apparently she, like Lily, didn't approve of taking one year old's on flying motorcycles. So he mouthed to Harry _I'll tell you later _and decided to shut up.

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

"Oh, honestly, give him a few seconds!" Ginny complained. Luna nodded in agreement with her only friend.

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon.**

"They made you _cook?!" _Molly cried in outrage. Many heads swiveled in his direction, waiting to hear his reply.

"Yes," Harry said. "But it wasn't a lot!" he added quickly after he saw everyone's frowning faces.

Okay, well that was a lie; it _was_ a lot. But what they didn't know couldn't hurt them right?

**And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"D-D-Duddy?" George managed to gasp out through peals of laughter, along with his twin. They were laughing so hard that their sides were hurting and their eyes were drying up. Sirius was also laughing along with them, and Remus's lips twitched as he tried to hold back his own laughter.

Harry smiled at them halfheartedly, amused though still worried. "Please, if you thought that was funny, you haven't heard nothing yet," he said, cracking a smile as he thought of all of his aunt's embarrassing nicknames for her son.

**Harry groaned.**

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"He didn't _say _anything," Bill pointed out needlessly, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

**"Nothing, nothing…"**

**Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten?**

"Because you didn't want to remember?" Fred guessed.

"Because Dudley's a spoiled brat?" George said, following his brother's lead.

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them,**

Ron shuddered at the mention of spiders and shot a deadly glare at his twin brothers who merely grinned sheepishly back at him. Their parents looked at them disapprovingly and they shrank back under Molly's glare.

Sirius, who had recognized their grins as meaning I-pranked-you-and-I-said-I'm-sorry-but-I'm-really- not (he had done a lot of that type of grinning back in his Hogwarts days) was looking at the twins curiously, wondering what prank they had played on Ron and whether it was Marauder-worthy. He didn't realize the expression of dread on his godson's face as he stared at the book.

**put them on. Harry was used to spiders,**

Ron shuddered again, more violently, and looked at Harry in horror. "How can you be _used _to _spiders, _mate?" He was more than a little worried when Harry didn't answer him.

**because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them,**

"What does that have to do with anything?" Neville asked, thinking along the same lines as everyone else. He frowned when he was ignored.

Harry bit his bottom lip so hard that he drew blood. _Oh Merlin, here it comes…_

**and that was where he slept.**

Silence.

Everything and everyone in the Great Hall was completely silent. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard; you could have heard a pin drop. The silence was unnerving as Harry winced, squeezing his eyes shut and waiting for the outbreak of shouts and yells as everyone stared at the book in the Minister's hands, wondering—_praying—_that they had heard the words wrong. Their ears had to be betraying them.

The deadly quiet was abruptly broken when Sirius stood up from his chair so violently that it few back against the wall and shattered into pieces immediately upon contact.

And then everything erupted at once.

Molly, Bill, Charlie, Amelia and McGonagall all started yelling at Dumbledore at once, the worst voices being those of Molly and the Transfiguration professor. The arguments went somewhere along these lines:

"...TOLD YOU THAT PLACE WASN'T SAFE FOR HIM BUT YOU DIDN'T LISTEN…"

"…LOCKED IN A CUPBOARD FOR A BEDROOM, PROBABLY STARVED! NO WONDER THE POOR DEAR IS SO SKINNY…"

"…YOU MUST HAVE CHECKED UP ON HIM, YOU MUST HAVE KNOWN…"

"…WHAT HE WAS PUT THROUGH IS AS FAR AS ABUSE IN THE MINISTRY'S EYES! I HAVE HALF A MIND TO THROW YOU IN AZKABAN FOR LEAVING A POOR CHILD TO SUFFER LIKE THAT…"

Meanwhile, after his chair had flew into the wall, Sirius had whipped his wand out and was in the process of bolting out of the Great Hall so he could give those Dursleys a piece of his mind. How dare they do that to his godson; _his _godson! There were no words on this earth that could ever accurately describe the fury and rage that Sirius Black was feeling at that moment; his eyes blazed, his blood boiled. He was going to very _slowly _and very _painfully _rip every single limb from their bodies and then, and _only _then, would he consider showing mercy and killing them.

That had been the plan.

But of course, Remus just _had _to go and ruin it by racing up behind him and grabbing him by his cloak in a steel-like grip, preventing him from getting any father.

When Tonks found out about Harry's situation at the Dursleys her hair had turned bright red in anger; she was quite fond of the boy. She'd had to calm Remus down when for a second he was so angry that she had thought she saw a shadow of the wolf pass over his face. Eventually she had gotten him calmed down enough, and that's when he had noticed Sirius storming across the room, and had gone to stop him from doing something he might regret later.

"Let me go, Remus!" Sirius snarled. "I'm going to rip them—limb—from—limb!"

"No, you're not!" the werewolf said fiercely, forcefully turning his best friend around to face him (and it took a _lot _of strength). "You aren't," he repeated, his voice more calm but still as fierce, locking eyes with Sirius, who eventually stopped his struggling.

"Listen to me," Remus tried to appeal to him, "I know you want to kill them. I do to. But it won't achieve anything, it will only make things worse. It will most likely end with you locked up in a cell in Azkaban. And maybe you don't care. But you should, for Harry. You're all he has left now, Sirius. He needs you." And after that little inspirational speech, Remus backed away, confident the other wouldn't try to run off now.

Sirius stood still, seeming to stare off into nothing. Remus's words seemed to repeat over and over in his head: _He needs you. _

Slowly, Sirius nodded. "For Harry, I won't kill them. At least not _yet."_

Remus let out a small relieved sigh. "That's all I ask."

The rest of the hall was in shock, staring wide-eyed at either the Boy Who Lived, or the book. Many of the females (Hermione, Ginny, Luna) had tears in their eyes.

"How come you never told us?" Hermione asked in a choked voice, wiping away her tears on her cloak sleeve.

Harry shrugged, feeling uncomfortable with all the attention, avoiding eye contact. "It wasn't important," he mumbled, "they aren't so bad now."

"Oh, Harry," Hermione cried, throwing her arms around him and sobbing into his shoulder. He patted her awkwardly on the back. Ron just kept staring, seeming as if he wasn't really all there.

Snape kept his face impassive, but inside his feelings toward the Potter boy were whirling around like an emotional hurricane, his emotions conflicted. How could it be that the arrogant brat had suffered a childhood of neglect? He couldn't wrap his head around it.

At the Slytherin table, Malfoy found himself feeling almost the exact same things as the Potions Master, suddenly finding himself wide awake. There was no way that Pampered Potter could be treated like this.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" Umbridge had finally shouted to silence Molly, McGonagall, Bill, and Charlie, who were still yelling (Amelia had already retreated back to her seat and was now furiously scribbling away on her parchment). Everyone retreated reluctantly back to their seats and Sirius pulled Harry closer to him, glowering at the book in Fudge's hands. Slightly uncomfortable under all the glares that were being shot his way, Fudge cleared his throat and once again began to read.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.**

**It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

Everyone was still so angry that even Mr. Weasley didn't ask what all the Muggle devices were.

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise unless of course it involved punching somebody.**

"That somebody better not have been you," Sirius growled.

**Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry,**

Needless to say, if looks could kill, the book would now be nothing but a pile of ashes.

**but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

"That's something at least," Tonks mumbled.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard,**

Nearly everyone growled at the mention of the cupboard.

**but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

Sirius thought about that for a minute, looking his godson over. James had also been small and skinny so it was most likely genes, but was that the only reason?

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

Molly and, surprisingly, Malfoy, both frowned at that. Molly remembered when Harry had asked her how to get onto the platform. He had been such a sweet boy, and his clothes had indeed been too big for him. Although Draco's frown was a lot less pronounced, he was also remembering how Harry had looked the same way during their first meeting at Madame Malkin's.

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair,**

"James," Sirius whispered with a slight smile gracing his lips.

**and bright green eyes.**

"Lily," Remus chorused. Nobody knew it, but Snape was thinking the same thing.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

Most people growled, Sirius the loudest.

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

Ron looked at Harry incredulously. "You liked it?" he asked, trying to push down the jealousy that was rising within him.

"Well, I didn't know what it meant at the time," he mumbled.

"What do you mean you didn't know what it meant?" Hermione asked, her forehead wrinkling slightly as it always did when she was confused or trying to figure something out. "Surely your aunt and uncle must have told you."

"Erm…"

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

Sirius and Remus sighed, wishing he had never had to have gotten it at all.

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.**

Once again there was dead silence.

"They. Told. Him. What?" Sirius choked out through gritted teeth, eyes flashing. Many people scooted away from him.

**"And don't ask questions."**

McGonagall looked thoughtful at this. Was this why Potter never asked any questions in class?

**_Don't ask questions _— that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"Then how will you learn!" Hermione cried, horrified. Harry and Ron laughed at her expression.

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

Molly grumbled something that sounded somewhere along the lines of "too young" and "cooking."

**"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"Won't work," Sirius said, ruffling his godson's hair for the second time. Harry glared at him; his godfather could be so annoying and childish sometimes but he couldn't help but love him for it.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place.**

"It's the curse of the Potter hair!" Sirius exclaimed in a dramatic voice as if he was announcing that someone had to die, making some people roll their eyes and others chuckle.

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel —**

Everyone snorted.

"If he's an angel, then I'm a hippogriff!" Fred declared.

**Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

There was an outbreak of laughter at this.

"Good one, Harry!" the twins praised.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six,"**

"Not even I get that much!" Draco exclaimed incredulously. Everyone turned to look at him and he quickly closed his mouth and acted as if he hadn't spoken.

**he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"Spoiled brat."

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present,**

"Ugh," Harry groaned, "hate her."

Ron turned to face him. "Is she the one you…"

Harry nodded. "Yep." He was now smiling, remembering what he had done to his aunt. Hermione was looking at the two of them disapprovingly.

Everyone was giving them curious looks. "Third year," he explained briefly, only causing people to become even more curious.

**see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

"How old is he again?"

"Now or in the book?"

"The book," Ron clarified.

Harry thought for a second. "Eleven."

"And he still calls his parents 'Mummy and Daddy'?"

Harry shrugged unconcernedly. "I guess."

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

"What do you mean, Harry?" Molly asked.

"Nothing, really, just that Dudley always scarfs down whatever food he can get his hands on."

"But your aunt and uncle would give you more food if he stole it, right?"

Harry didn't answer, making her frown deepen.

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another _two _presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? _Two _more presents. Is that all right?"**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"**

"Dear Circe, he can't even count!" McGonagall exclaimed.

"Even I know simple math," Malfoy boasted.

"How would you know, Malfoy?" Ron sneered.

Draco rolled his eyes. "One word, Weaselbee: Arithmancy. In order to do the spells you need to be able to know simple math and equations. Not that I would expect someone like _you_ to understand such a complex subject. You are taking Care of Magical Creatures, are you not?" He said the name of the class with disgust, making it clear that he thought it was nothing but garbage.

"You're taking it too!" Ron fired back while Hermione frowned disapprovingly from the left of him.

"Yes, I am taking it because I had heard from the older students that it was an interesting class, especially when Kettleburn had been teaching it, but now I fail to see any importance in it now that the filthy half-breed is teaching it," Draco said in his typical sneer.

"Malfoy, I'm warning you, if you don't shut up…" Harry began, leaving the threat hanging. He was very sensitive to insults directed at Hagrid since the Trio hadn't seen him since the end of last year, and had no way of knowing if he was alright.

"You'll do what? Hex me? I'd like to see you try," he challenged.

Harry reached inside his robes to draw out his wand, but Hermione held him back. "Think before you act," she hissed in his ear. Harry listened to her but glared at Malfoy, who glared right back.

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"He obviously inherited his manners from his father," Molly mumbled.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

Arthur's eyes were as wide as saucers and he was quickly jotting down all the Muggle compliances that were being mentioned.

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"He's a person! Not a dog!" Ginny exclaimed. Harry directed a small, grateful smile at her, and when she felt her cheeks heating up, she quickly turned away. _What's the matter with you?! _she asked herself. _You're over Harry now, remember? You're dating Michael!_

Sirius huffed at Ginny's statement. "There's nothing wrong with dogs," he grumbled much to Harry's amusement.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away.**

"Harry! That's not very nice," Mrs. Weasley scolded.

He smiled back at her sheepishly. "Erm, sorry? But in my defense, I didn't know she was a Squib back then."

**Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

Sirius shuddered. "I _hate _cats."

McGonagall leveled her eyes with his. "What was that Mr. Black?"

The Animagus's eyes widened. "Nothing! Cats are fine! I love them, in fact, cats are— cats are _great_!" he quickly corrected. A few people had to fight to hide their smiles.

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.**

"Oh, lay off him, will you?"

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

"Harry!" Molly scolded again.

Harry just rolled his eyes and mumbled "Sorry."

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

Harry's nose wrinkled at her name. Ron had to put a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing under Hermione's disapproving stare.

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

Harry rolled his eyes. "I hate it when people talk about me like I'm not in the room." People gave him pitying looks, assuming he was talking about just the Dursleys, but he ignored them. A lot of other people frequently spoke of him as if he wasn't in the room, as well.

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

Ron made a face as he was forcefully reminded of the slug incident in second year. Harry sniggered, guessing what his best mate was thinking about when he heard him mumbling something about "stupid Malfoy" and "stupid bloody tree".

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"**

**"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"But then you would be happy, and they couldn't allow that, could they?" Tonks said angrily. She had come to think of Harry as a friend, perhaps even a little brother.

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon. "And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"He's not going to blow up the house!" Hermione cried.

"No, that's Sirius's job," Remus put in, smiling at the man in question.

"_Moony!" _Sirius whined childishly. "That was only _one _time! And me and James fixed it before his parents got home, so stop teasing me!"

People gave the man curious looks. _He is definitely telling me that story later, _Harry thought.

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

"No one ever does," he muttered darkly. It was even worse now that Voldemort was back; barely anyone believed he was telling the truth.

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"**

"That's illegal!" Hermione yelled, horrified

**"That car's new; he's not sitting in it alone…"**

"He's not gonna blow it up!" Charlie said, scandalized.

"No, that's Sirius's—"

"Don't even say it, Moony!"

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He knew a lot of the purebloods in his House did that. He didn't do that—not because he hadn't thought about it, 'cause he had—because he was too dignified for such a thing.

**"Dinky Duddydums,**

There was an outbreak of laughter at this.

"Di-Dinky Dud-Duddydums!" Fred and George chocked out through their laughter. "Brilliant!"

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

**"I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

Harry's godfather scowled. "Nasty, little…" He then proceeded to say something that made Mrs. Weasley cover Ron's ears and say "Sirius!"

Ron, his face a brilliant shade of red, shook his mother's hands off with a mortified protest of "Mum!"

**Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss,**

Neville snorted at the name.

**walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

Sirius and Remus's faces darkened at the mention of a rat.

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"If you can't cry in front of your friends, who can you cry in front of?" Luna asked, remembering how Ginny had comforted her last year when she was crying on the anniversary of her mother's death.

Draco frowned, knowing that his friends weren't the kind he could cry in front of. He suddenly felt a surprising surge of jealousy toward the Golden Trio and how close they were, wishing he could have a close friendship like that.

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.**

Sirius felt a sharp pain in his chest. He knew that James and Lily had been planning to take Harry to the zoo, but then they had had to go into hiding, so they never got to.

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's,**

"Gross."

**"I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"He didn't, did he?" Sirius growled.

"Obviously he didn't, since I came to Hogwarts."

Harry didn't mention the fact that his uncle locked him in there until his birthday.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

Everyone gave him pitying looks, but he ignored them. God, how he _hated_ their pity.

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

Malfoy almost laughed at the truth in that statement, but with difficulty, held it in.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

Sirius smiled fondly. "James did that once."

"Yes, Sirius, he did. Do you care to tell everyone how his hair got scorched off in the first place?"

"No, not really."

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he _couldn't _explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

Sirius growled dangerously, and Molly exclaimed, "A _week in his cupboard? _For something he couldn't even _control?!"_

Snape frowned. Petunia knew about accidental magic; she should have known that Potter couldn't control it. Lily couldn't; Dumbledore had explained that when she told Lily she was a wizard (after she already knew of course, since he had told her before she got her Hogwarts letter).

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).**

Ginny and Tonks shuddered.

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

_He shouldn't have to be worried about being punished, _Molly thought.

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.**

Ron laughed. "How in the hell ("Ronald, language!") did you get on the roof, mate?"

Harry shrugged. "I dunno. I just appeared there." Many people were awed by how powerful Harry seemed to be.

"Did you Apparate?" Hermione asked, also awed. "Harry, that's really powerful magic."

"Maybe, I can't remember. I think I might of flown."

Snape thought this was most likely, remembering how Lily had flown, but he wasn't about to tell Potter that.

**Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.**

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong.**

Sirius sighed. "And you just had to go and jinx it."

**It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.**

Sirius huffed. "And what exactly, is wrong with motorcycles?"

**"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums,"**

"I am _not—" _Sirius began.

"Yes, you are," Remus cut him off.

Sirius pouted while the others laughed at him.

**he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

**"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

Sirius smacked his godson upside the head lightly. "Harry!"

"Ow!" Harry complained, glaring at his godfather. "What was that for?"

"That was _not _a smart thing to say!"

"So then I'm not smart. I was ten; give me a break!"

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache:**

**"MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

"Yes they do! Mine does!" Sirius said proudly. Everyone rolled their eyes at him.

Now that Sirius was thinking about his motorcycle, he really wanted it back. It used to be really good for fast escapes during Order missions and surprise Death Eater attacks. He couldn't wait until Hagrid came back from where he was with the giants so he could ask if he still had his motorcycle.

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

"No it wasn't! It was real!"

"Sirius?"

"Huh?"

"Shut up!"

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

"He has enough of those on his own," Ron said, and Hermione nodded in agreement. Neville, overhearing them, shuddered, remembering the three headed dog in first year. Draco remembered that _thing _that he and Potter encountered in the Forbidden Forest, and wondered just how much trouble Potter and his friends got into.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams**

Remus's eyes grew wide at the mention of chocolate. Speaking of chocolate, he was really craving some… it had to have been at least five hours since he last had any!

**at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

More laughter followed this statement.

"That's an insult to gorillas, Harry!" Tonks said. Her hair had turned from the angry red color back to its usual pink color.

"Why aren't you this funny at school, Harry!" the twins laughed.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.**

Sirius growled and pulled his godson closer to him. It was getting a bit annoying, but Harry didn't mind all that much.

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

Everyone groaned. Ron looked at Harry. "You always have the worst of luck, mate."

Needless to say, Sirius wasn't very reassured by this comment.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house.**

Harry's eyes widened. During all the panic and chaos of everyone finding out he slept in a cupboard for eleven years of his life, he had totally forgot about the snake. He risked a look at his godfather who was listening attentively to the book with a scowl on his face. What would he say? Being a Parselmouth was a Slytherin trait; Harry knew that Sirius had enough reason to hate all Slytherins because of his family.

Would Sirius hate him as well?

**It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

Ron remembered how Harry had once told him that a boa constrictor had once told him it had never seen Brazil, the night of Lockhart's Dueling Club. Was this the snake? He glanced at his best mate who had sunk lower in his seat and was anxiously gnawing on his bottom lip.

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

Harry gulped. He didn't want Sirius and everyone to know he was a Parselmouth; that was why he kept it a secret! The only reason that the whole school knew was because of what Malfoy had told Rita Skeeter last year (and because of the Dueling Club, but most people forgot about that after the Chamber was closed).

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

Ron looked at Harry and snorted.

"What?"

"Only you would compare yourself to a snake, mate."

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

_**It winked.** _

"What?" Sirius said, befuddled. _Why would a snake _wink _at my godson?_

"Snakes don't have eyelids," Hermione pointed out needlessly. Ron rolled his eyes.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

"Don't talk back to the creepy snake!" Sirius hissed. Harry just stared at him, wondering if he had finally lost it.

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:**

**"_I get that all the time." _**

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

Neville noticing the tension in the room, gave a weak chuckle. "Only you could think it was completely normal to talk to a snake, Harry."

Harry quirked a small smile, but kept glancing at his godfather who was staring at the book in shock.

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

Finally, Sirius seemed to snap out of his daze. "You speak Parseltongue?" he asked, looking a bit uneasy. Harry nodded, looking anywhere but at his godfather.

Sirius bit his lip and in that moment, seemed to make a decision. Harry closed his eyes, not wanting to see the disgust on his face. He waited for his godfather to turn on him, as he surely would after learning this bit of information.

But instead he did something that he _definitely _hadn't been expecting.

He leaned over and hugged him.

Harry drew in a sharp breath of surprise. Sirius pulled back quickly, uncomfortably aware that everyone was watching them. Sirius looked Harry right in the face, grey eyes into green.

"It doesn't matter to me," he said. "It doesn't change who you are or what I think of you. Anyone who says differently can fuck off."

("Sirius! Watch your language around the children!")

Harry felt his worries slip away at his godfather's words.

"I want to talk to you after this chapter," Sirius lent down and whispered in his ear.

And his worries returned at full force.

**"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"**

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could. "Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.**

Harry suddenly gasped as he felt a sharp pain in his ribs and felt as if he'd had the wind knocked out of him. He glanced around but everyone was so focused on the book that they hadn't seemed to notice.

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

"What happened, what happened?" Charlie asked.

Bill slapped his brother lightly on the head. "Shut up and maybe we'll find out."

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

Everyone started laughing. Fred and George high-fived.

Harry's brow was furrowed in thought. _Snake… parseltongue… Voldemort… Nagini… no, it couldn't be…_

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, **_**"Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."** _

"At least it was polite."

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

"Into nothing, which is to say, everything," both Hermione and Remus quoted at the same time. Hermione looked shocked and her old professor sent her a smile, which she returned.

Sirius laughed and pointed at Hermione. "She's like a female Moony!"

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

Harry couldn't help comparing this with that time Ron had exaggerated how Dumbledore had supposedly 'kidnapped' him as a hostage during the second task.

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

Everyone groaned and various mutterings of "shut up" were heard around the hall.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"WHAT?!" Molly screamed, and Harry winced. "THEY STARVED YOU?! NO WONDER YOU'RE SO SKINNY!"

Beside him, Sirius was barely suppressing his fury.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.**

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

Sirius winced and Molly covered her mouth with her hand. "You remember that?" she asked in horror.

_I remember a lot more now thanks to the Dementors._

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.**

"The Killing Curse," Tonks whispered softly in horror. Remus stiffened beside her.

**He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

Harry smiled slightly; he remembered the first time he had saw his parents, that night in the Mirror of Erised.

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.**

Sirius flinched violently, guilt flooding him. Someone might as well have stabbed him with a rusty dagger; it would have hurt a lot less than reminding him of his failure.

"It's not your fault," Harry whispered, but Sirius ignored him, staring off into nothing.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

Dumbledore chuckled. "Filius."

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus.**

"That sounds like Doris Crockferd," McGonagall pointed out.

**A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word.**

"Dedalus. He's not exactly subtle, is he?"

**The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look**.

"Apparition," Hermione said.

"I know that now, Hermione!"

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

Cornelius Fudge closed the book with a snap as he finished up the chapter. There was a tense silence as everyone took in what they had just read. Finally, Fudge passed it to Amelia who opened it up to the desired page.

"**CHAPTER THREE: THE LETTERS FROM—**"

"Excuse me, Madame Bones?" Sirius interrupted. "If you don't mind, I would like a few seconds to talk alone with my godson."

Amelia, who had no problems with this, looked toward Fudge for confirmation.

He nodded. "Very well."

Sirius got up and strode toward the doors. With a nervous look back at his friends, Harry got up and followed after him.

**AN: So how did you like the next chapter? Did it meet your expectations? I hope it did. I had to repost this because when I first did, the parts from the book weren't bolded for some reason.**

**LEAVE A REVIEW! LEAVE A REVIEW! LEAVE A REVIEW!**


	4. I'll Always Be There

_**I'll Always Be There**_

_Cornelius Fudge closed the book with a snap as he finished up the chapter. There was a tense silence as everyone took in what they had just read. Finally, Fudge passed it to Amelia who opened it up to the desired page._

"**_CHAPTER THREE: THE LETTERS FROM__—"_**

"_Excuse me, Madame Bones?" Sirius interrupted. "If you don't mind, I would like a few seconds to talk alone with my godson." _

_Amelia, who had no problems with this, looked toward Fudge for confirmation._

_He nodded. "Very well."_

_Sirius got up and strode toward the doors. With a nervous look back at his friends, Harry got up and followed after him._

The large doors closed with a slam as Sirius and Harry exited the Great Hall. Everyone sat there in silence, not she what to say after what had just been read. Everyone was either feeling shocked, sad, angry, or a combination of the three at the way Harry Potter had been treated. Draco even treated the house elves better than Harry's relatives treated him; like he was some slave.

Hermione sniffed and wiped her tears on her coat sleeve. "Why didn't he tell us?" she asked Ron in a broken whisper. "How could we, after all these years of knowing him, not know?" She let out another sob and gripped her chair in a death grip, her body shaking.

"I don't know," Ron whispered, still staring nowhere but straight ahead of him. He still seemed like he was in some sort of trance, but at least he was talking now. "I-I never knew. All those times he dreaded going home for the summer, all those times he stayed at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays… I knew his relatives weren't the best of people, but…" he let his sentence trail off, leaving the rest of it unspoken.

"We never even asked him about it!" Hermione cried. "I-I should have known, I should have asked him!" Hermione was well passed being distressed now. Although she was no longer sobbing her heart out, she still sounded hysterical. "I'm such a bad friend," she whispered brokenly. This finally seemed to snap Ron out of his zombie-like state, because he whipped his head around to face her.

"You're not a bad friend, Hermione," he told her, shocked that she could even think such a thing. "You just didn't know. None of us did." It was him who felt guilty now, remembering all the times he had been jealous of Harry. He shouldn't have been; at least he was surrounded by a family that loved him.

"But-But… I…" Hermione stammered, tears pouring down her cheeks.

"No," the redhead said firmly. "You, Hermione Jean Granger, are not a bad friend. You are the best friend anyone could ask for," he said truthfully, "and anyone who's not friends with you should be jealous."

Hermione looked up at him, shocked. When trying to cheer people up, Ron usually only succeeded in making them more upset; he could be rather thickheaded at times. She guessed it only went to show that people can surprise you in the best ways.

"Really?"

"Really. Have I ever lied to you before?"

"Well, actually—" Hermione began, and Ron rolled his eyes.

"Never mind, then. You are the worst friend in the history of friends," he joked.

She laughed. "Shut up," she told him, hitting him lightly on the shoulder. Ron just smiled, glad he could cheer her up as they waited for their friend to come back.

Up in the front of the Great Hall where the professors and Ministry members were seated, a heated but quiet argument was taking place.

"I don't care _what _the reason you put him there is, Albus, he won't be staying!" McGonagall said fiercely.

"I second that," Amelia said, glaring at the headmaster angrily. She sympathized with Harry Potter more than the other adults because she had a niece who was the same age as Harry, and she couldn't bear the thought of Susan being treated like that. She had also known Lily during her Hogwarts years; they hadn't been very good friends, but the younger girl had always been nice and polite to her. "I'm sure the Minister will agree," she said.

When Fudge said nothing, Amelia turned her glare on him and he gulped, quickly stammering out, "And I quite agree."

Umbridge had been smiling ever sense she discovered that Potter was mistreated, but now that smile faltered. "Surely you aren't agreeing to this, Minister!" she let out a nervous, giggly laugh as if the concept were ridiculous. "These muggles are treating Potter how he ought to be treated. He needs to learn that he will receive no special treatment, he needs some respect knocked into him!" she insisted.

Amelia stared at her most hated colleague incredulously. Even she hadn't known that Umbridge could be _that _cruel. "Surely you aren't suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" she asked in a carefully controlled voice.

"We do not accept Potter getting special treatment, and he _will _be punished for all his lies, but we in no way condone child abuse, Delores," he said in a stony voice. Umbridge, recognizing that she was skating on thin ice, smartly closed her mouth and said nothing more on the subject.

Snape, meanwhile, had frozen when Fudge uttered the word 'abuse'. Where had that come from? Potter hadn't suffered from abuse from his relatives had he? Verbal abuse, most likely yes, but physical abuse? Surely not. Surely his home life wasn't that horrible. Snape couldn't bear the thought that Potter's childhood could have been similar to his own.

"My mother would be happy to take him in," Percy Weasley said stiffly.

Dumbledore smiled at him. "Have you talked to your family, Percy?" he asked brightly.

"No," he replied curtly. His tone made it clear that he had nothing more to say on the subject.

"I'm sure a certain _black dog _would be happy to take him in," McGonagall suggested pointedly. Everyone looked at her, confusion shining in their eyes, except for Snape who made a noise of distaste. The Transfiguration professor huffed loudly when Dumbledore pretended not to hear her.

At the Hufflepuff table, Remus was torn between anger and concern. He was angry at the way those Dursleys had treated Harry. Although he had convinced Sirius not to go and kill the Dursleys, it had been a bit hypocritical of him, seeing as he wanted to kill them too. He was just able to control his temper better; a fact that he found ironic considering the fact that he was the werewolf, not Sirius. But from what he'd seen, large tempers were a Black family trait. He remembered that whenever Sirius and his brother would have a fight (and it was very, _very _often) both their tempers were evenly matched.

He was concerned because Harry and Sirius had been out there for a while. What if, after they were done talking, Sirius found some way to escape to go and kill the Dursleys? He didn't think he would after he told him Harry needed him, but he couldn't be completely positive.

The way Harry was treated made him feel guilty. He knew he couldn't have raised Harry because there were laws against it, because he was a werewolf. But he at least could have come to visit his best friend's son. But he hadn't. Why hadn't he?

At the Slytherin table, Draco had his elbows propped up on the table, his chin resting in his hands, his mouth pulled down into a slight frown. His blue-grey eyes, which had dark circles underneath them from lack of sleep, stared off into space, thinking. He didn't even take notice when a lock of his extremely-blonde hair fell into his face. He was too deep in his thoughts.

He didn't understand what had been read today. No matter how many times he went over it in his thoughts, it didn't make sense. He remembered when they had read that Potter had lived in a cupboard. Everyone's face had showed anger or sadness, but he was sure that if he'd had a mirror, all his would have shown would have been pure shock. There wasn't another word for how he felt except shocked. It was no secret that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy hated each other. Everyone knew it; they knew it, students knew it, teachers knew it. No one knew why hated each other exactly; they figured it was because Draco was a Slytherin and Harry was a Gryffindor. Only Draco knew the real reason; that their bitter rivalry had started when Potter refused his hand of friendship on the train.

He wouldn't admit this to anyone but himself, but he was jealous. Potter had real friends where he only had fake ones. The only reason Crabbe and Goyle stuck around was because of his last name, because they thought they would be popular by association. The closest person he had to a real friend was Blaise, maybe Daphne, but even that was a stretch. His decisions and life choices had been made for him before he was even born. His father thought he was a failure and never failed to remind Draco of this fact every chance he got. Draco Malfoy wasn't the pampered little prince everyone thought him to be.

And he had resented Potter for it, for being the perfect 'pampered little prince' that he never was, that he seemed to beat Draco at _everything. _He often complained to his House members how Potter was pampered and spoiled for doing something that he couldn't even remember.

But the whole time he had been wrong. Potter wasn't spoiled; far from it.

The levity of his thoughts confused him and made his head pound. He folded his arms and rested his head on the table, wishing he could go back to the times when all he had to worry about was his massive pile of homework and the upcoming Quidditch game. He decided maybe he should take a quick nap to help sort out his conflicting thoughts.

**xXxXx**

Harry followed Sirius into an empty classroom so they could talk privately. He didn't recognize the classroom but the pictures on the walls were all still; they were muggle photographs so he supposed it was most likely the Muggle Studies classroom. Sirius pulled out a chair from one of the desks and sat down, then gestured for Harry to do the same.

Everything was silent; Sirius had never been one for serious conversations so he didn't really know how to start. The raven-haired teen was looking nervous about what Sirius had wanted to talk about. He hoped that one day Harry would feel more comfortable talking to him.

Harry fidgeted nervously with his shirt sleeve. He looked to the window that was to the right of him. Was it really that far of a jump?

"Nervous?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No."

"Then why do you look like a pack of Dementors are going to burst in the door any minute?"

Harry grinned sheepishly. "Oh good, well at least I've got a courageous look about me," he said sarcastically.

Sirius sighed. "Harry, I'm going to ask you something and I want a completely-serious-no-nonsense answer, okay?"

Harry gulped, biting the inside of his mouth. "Okay," he said, even though he knew he wasn't going to like what his godfather was going to ask him.

Sirius sucked in a breath. "Did the Dursleys… did the Dursleys ever… hurt you in anyway?"

Harry's answering silence was enough.

Sirius slumped into himself, wearing a glazed expression on his face. His mouth opened and closed like he didn't know what to say. It reminded Harry of a fish.

"It wasn't bad!" Harry said quickly. "It was only a few backhands, it's not as if they were beating me! Don't overreact. Please don't do something stupid," he begged. Sirius rested his head in his hands, massaging his temples.

"Harry, how long has this kind of thing been going on?" he asked looking into Harry's eyes to detect if he was telling the truth.

"Not very long," he said slipping his gaze away. It was only stretching the truth a little.

"Not very long as in a few days? A few weeks?" he implored.

"A few years…" Harry said quietly.

"What? Harry, look at me in the eyes and answer me, okay?" Harry obeyed. "When did this first start?"

"Er…I don't know. It was before I can really remember, but not as bad really," he mumbled. Sirius looked shocked. His eyes flashed murderously and he stood up quickly, looking as if he was going to give credence to his reputation.

"I'm going to kill them. I'm going to rip off their bloody heads. I'm going to…"

"Sirius!" Harry scolded. "Stop. You're not going to kill them or decapitate them in any way, all right?"

"I have to go. I have to kill them or hurt them or something. They'll pay, those bastards!" he said, standing up and starting for the door.

Harry stood up quickly. He ran to place himself between Sirius and the door.

"No, Sirius, please. Don't do anything stupid. You'll get thrown in Azkaban and you'll be gone again. Don't go. Please, stay here with me. After we're done reading these books, who knows the next time I'll get to see you," Harry pleaded desperately. He could see that Sirius was calming down at his words, probably touched that his godson wanted his company. Sirius sighed and sat back down. Harry followed his lead.

"James and Lily must be rolling over in their graves." He paused then looked at Harry. "I'm so sorry, Harry, I've been a horrible godfather to you."

"Sirius, don't say that, this is not your fault at all!" Why was everyone blaming themselves? It was getting on Harry's nerves.

"Well, I swear to you on my Marauder status that you will never have to go through that again. Listen, kid, this summer I promise that you're going to have the best time of your life! A huge room, there'll be a miniature Quidditch pitch around back, and I have tons of old junk you can help me sort through…"

"Er…no offense Sirius, but I have no idea what you're going on about."

"I mean that you're coming to live with me at Grimmauld Place."

Harry looked at Sirius. "Really?"

"Of course. You're never going back to those damn Dursleys again. And if Dumbledore tries to stop me, I'll show him the reason people believe I'm a mass murderer." Sirius smiled. "So, if you still want to, this summer, you'll move into the Black House, and I'll make sure it'll be the best summer you've ever had."

"Really? You're serious?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Of course I'm serious. Serious is my middle name. Oh wait, it's my first name." Harry burst out laughing.

"I'm guessing you've used that one a lot, huh?"

"Oh yeah, that joke never dies and never will. I assure you that you'll learn to avoid asking if I'm serious at all costs in the near future."

Harry smiled. "Should we head back then?" he asked reluctantly, wanting to spend some more time just talking with his godfather.

Sirius sighed. "I guess we should."

They both stood up and walked to the door. Harry got there first but Sirius' voice from behind him stopped him in his tracks.

"Harry? You know I'll always be there for you right? No matter what?"

Harry turned around, his emerald green eyes meeting his godfather's stormy grey ones. "Yeah, I know."

Sirius walked up to stand beside Harry. "You're stuck with me, kiddo," he said, ruffling the teen's unruly hair.

He smiled. "That's fine by me."

**xXxXx**

_It was always this dream. Always the same, never changing._

_It would start out not so bad. He would be sitting on a seat in an empty compartment on the Hogwarts express. It was storming outside, thunder and lightning flashing in the distance. He chewed on a chocolate frog, watching as the rain drops slid down the window. Reflected in the glass, his own face looked nervous and paler than usual. He had never felt so alone._

_Then the compartment door slid open and he whipped around to see who had entered. The face of Pansy Parkinson stared back at him, looking serious, her dark locks cascading over her shoulders._

"_Draco," she said, "it's time."_

_Then his surroundings blurred. Everything got dark for a second as the dream shifted. The next thing he knew, he was standing in the woods that were close by to the Quidditch World Cup stadium. People were screaming in the distance; masked figures shot blasts of green light in every which direction. It was just like that time before his fourth year only he knew time had passed because he was taller now, and the Mark now burned on his left forearm._

_Suddenly, a slim figure came crashing through the bushes. She was a young woman with tan skin and honey-blonde hair. A muggle. "Please!" she screamed hysterically, tears pouring down her face. "Help me!"_

_Draco barely spared her a glance as he carelessly flicked his wand and said, _"Avada Kedavra." _Green light burst from his wand and hit the unknown woman in the sternum. She dropped to the ground, dead. He then stepped over her body without a care and looked up at the sky, pointing his wand high._

"Mosmorde," _he whispered, voice so low that even he could barely hear it. He watched with growing fascination as a bright light shot out of the tip of his wand, briefly illuminating his surroundings. The light shot skywards, curling and twisting in the midnight sky as it formed an image._

_Over the forest hung a bright, glowing skull, with a snake twisting and slithering out of its mouth; the Dark Mark. Draco lowered his wand and stared up at it with a smile. _

Draco gasped and took a shuddering breath as his eyes shot open and he awoke. He gripped the table firmly but no matter what he did, he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. Feeling eyes on him, he turned around to see that everyone was staring at him.

"What are you looking at?" he snapped, and they immediately averted their eyes.

Draco sighed and turned back around, rubbing his eyes. That had been the third time he had had that dream. It was always the same and always as terrifying. He didn't know what was so terrifying about it; a normal kid would say it was the Dark Mark, but Draco had been dreaming of being a Death Eater for a long time, so why would that scare him?

The dream itself wasn't really what was so terrifying; it was the feeling that came with it. Cold, unfeeling, evil. It scared him so much that on the way to Hogwarts this year, Draco had nearly had a panic attack when Pansy had poked her head in his compartment and said, _"Draco, it's time." _(As it turned out, she was just talking about how it was time to get their robes on, and he had panicked for nothing.)

He sighed and buried his face in his arms. He really needed to get some sleep that didn't include nightmares.

At that moment the door opened back up and Sirius and Harry stepped out. Everyone trained their eyes on them as they calmly made their way back to their previous seats.

There was an uncomfortable silence as all conversations ceased and everyone stared at Harry, who squirmed in his seat. Deciding to take pity on the boy, Amelia opened the book and read clearly, "**CHAPTER THREE: THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE**"

"What?" George asked. "How can letters be from no one one?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "It's his Hogwart's letter, you idiot."

He blinked. "Oh."

"Yay!" Tonks cheered. "Harry finally goes to Hogwarts and gets away from his horrid relatives!"

Harry allowed himself to smile. _Thanks to Hagrid, _he thought, thinking fondly of his half-giant friend.

**AN: Okay, there is the filler chapter! And I wrote it in only two days! I'm already starting the next chapter; I'm not sure when I'll finish it but it will definitely be before the end of the week.**

**Also, Goddess Alexandria, who pointed out that th snake was not Nagini: I know the snake wasn't Nagini; it was just an idea Harry had. Just pointing that out; thanks for reviewing.**

**LEAVE A REVIEW! LEAVE A REVIEW! LEAVE A REVIEW!**


	5. The Letters from No One

_**The Letters from No One**_

_There was an uncomfortable silence as all conversations ceased and everyone stared at Harry, who squirmed in his seat. Deciding to take pity on the boy, Amelia opened the book and read clearly, "__**CHAPTER THREE: THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE**__"_

"_What?" George asked. "How can letters be from no one?"_

_Ginny rolled her eyes. "It's his Hogwarts letter, you idiot."_

_He blinked. "Oh."_

"_Yay!" Tonks cheered. "Harry finally goes to Hogwarts and gets away from his horrid relatives!"_

_Harry allowed himself to smile. _Thanks to Hagrid,_ he thought, thinking fondly of his half-giant friend._

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment.**

"It wasn't even his fault!" Sirius couldn't resist yelling, glaring at the book.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Try telling the Dursleys that," he commented dryly. As far as they were concerned, anything that was slightly bad or out of the ordinary was Harry's fault.

Harry quickly noticed the mistake of his words when his godfather got a steely look in his grey eyes. "Ok, I will," he said fiercely, getting up from his seat. The look in his eyes guaranteed that whatever Sirius was going to 'tell' them, it involved a lot less telling and a lot more hexing. Harry, and Charlie, who was sitting on the other side of the furious Animagus, quickly grabbed him by his cloak and forcefully pulled him back down.

**By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started**

"Harry, dear," Mrs. Weasley began, "when is your cousin's birthday?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably and muttered something that was too low to be distinguished.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Remus said in disbelief, his eyes wide, having been the only one who had heard Harry due to his werewolf hearing. He was hoping he had heard wrong, although he doubted he had.

"April," Harry grumbled a bit louder, keeping his eyes trained on his lap.

The females once again looked like they might cry. Sirius brought his fist down hard on the table in front of him and growled, but thankfully didn't try to get up again. Ginny's eyes flamed with hatred for the Dursleys. Hermione looked heartbroken, as did Luna. Even though she didn't know Harry all that well, it hurt her to hear about people being treated in such a way.

**Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"That horrid boy!" Molly commented.

Remus frowned at the mention of Arabella. He knew she had been sent there by Dumbledore to watch Harry; so then why hadn't she done something or told someone when she realized how Harry was being mistreated?

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

Draco rolled his eyes. "Because that so makes sense," he whispered sarcastically under his breath.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting .**

More glares were sent in the book's direction. Sirius's fingers dug into the wood of the table, his knuckles turning completely white. It was taking all his willpower to stay in his seat and not go rushing over to Little Whinging, wand raised and ready to fire.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope.**

Sirius's heart went out to his godson in sympathy and understanding. He remembered during his own summer holidays how he would longingly count down the days until he got to get away from his parents and go back to Hogwarts where there was people who actually cared about him (of course, Regulus had cared for him, but that was before he had become a Death Eater and everything changed).

**When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley.**

For what seemed like no reason at all, the Weasley twins started doubling over in laughter, snickering and wiping their eyes. Everyone swiveled around to look at them as if they had gone insane, which they most likely had.

"Imagine if Dudley…" Fred began.

"… turned out to be a wizard!" George finished, still laughing like crazy.

Harry's first reaction was to make a face of disgust, imagining having to put up with Dudley at Hogwarts. But then he got what the twins were getting at and he couldn't help sniggering, imagining Aunt Petunia's reaction.

A lot of people were either smiling or chuckling now. "Imagine the look on your aunt's face, Harry!" Ron said, joining in on the laughter. Even Snape had to hide a small smile imagining how Tuney would take the news.

**Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings.** **Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school.**

"No he's not, he's going to Hogwarts," Neville said fiercely.

Harry smiled. "I know that _now," _he told him.

**Dudley thought this was very funny. **

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice." **

**"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it - it might be sick."**

Mostly everyone laughed or cracked smiles. Fred, George, and Sirius were laughing the loudest. The twins were wondering why Harry wasn't this funny at school, and Sirius was wondering where that comment had come from: Lily or James. It was very cheeky, like Lily had always been, but it also sounded like the kind of insult that James would have made.

**Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"I don't think he ever did," Harry commented needlessly, musing at how amazingly stupid his cousin was.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before.**

Sirius nodded in agreement. Cats were _horrible! _How could people stand them? Luckily, McGonagall didn't see.

**She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"No, that's chocolate abuse!" Remus cried, horrified, much to the amusement of Tonks who giggled.

Meanwhile, Sirius had flinched at the mention of abuse, an forceful reminder of what Harry had gone through at the Dursleys while he was locked up in Azkaban. Snape shifted uncomfortably, also unpleasantly reminded that the Potter boy might have been abused.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats,**

Ron gagged. "I _hate _maroon," he moaned.

Molly frowned at him, remembering how she always knitted his Christmas sweater in that color. "I thought you liked maroon."

"No, I don't." He didn't mention that Percy was the one who liked maroon, because he knew it would only succeed in making his mother cry. Percy noticed this and felt a tiny stab of guilt about what he had said to his family, his father in particular, before pushing it away.

**orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking.**

Hermione looked at Harry incredulously. "I doubt that's what they're really for," she told him. He just shrugged, thinking of all the times Dudley had used it to hit him.

**This was supposed to be good training for later life. **

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life.** **Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins,**

The twins and Sirius started laughing again at the ridiculous nickname.

**he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak.**

"Why not?"

**He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

He was making no such restrictions now, remembering that day with clear detail. Neither was anyone else.

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.**

**"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question. **

Hermione whimpered at the mere prospect of not being able to ask a question as McGonagall's frown deepened, once again wondering if this was why Mister Potter never asked questions. By now, Snape was thinking along the same lines (although he had to admit that more of the reason that Potter never asked questions in _his_ class was because he was always so harsh on him; but still, it wasn't as if he didn't deserve it).

"**Your new school uniform," she said. Harry looked in the bowl again.**

**"Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

Sirius snorted. That was definitely a trait Harry had got from James; Lily couldn't be sarcastic to save her life.

Meanwhile, Snape rolled his eyes, knowing sarcasm never worked on Petunia.

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

A few people snorted. Everyone seriously doubted that.

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue.**

Ron and Hermione gaped at him. Harry tried to ignore them, feeling a bit annoyed.

They just found it a bit unbelievable. They both knew that Harry had never once passed up the chance for an argument and never once backed down. This had only been further proven with his recent fights with Umbridge. They were starting to realize that the Harry that they were reading about-the Harry who still lived with the Dursleys and knew nothing about the wizard world—was a lot less headstrong and confident.

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High - like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

The twins snorted. Harry glared at them but quickly gave up at being annoyed and just rolled his eyes, looking back toward the book in Madame Bones's hands.

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

Tonks's eyes widened. "You mean he's actually making his fat pig of a son do something?"

Harry just shook his head. "Wait for it."

**"Make Harry get it." **

**"Get the mail, Harry."**

**"Make Dudley get it." **

**"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

Sirius growled and started mumbling curse words under his breath, looking every bit the part of a murderer. Everyone gave him wary looks.

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick** **and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge,**

Harry made a face—stupid, bloody woman!

**who was on vacation on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and - a letter for Harry.**

Everyone smiled (besides Umbridge, Fudge, Malfoy, and Snape). They knew it was his Hogwarts letter; all of them were remembering how they had all felt when they had received their Hogwarts acceptance letter in the mail.

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would?**

Fred and George sniggered when Ginny's face flamed as red as her hair.

"Gin Gin wrote to Ickle Harrykins many times!" they said. Ginny gave them a death glare and buried her flushing face in her arms in embarrassment. Harry noticed that Ron was also blushing and he raised a questioning eyebrow at him, only causing his best mate to turn a deeper shade of red.

Hermione rolled her eyes, looking at him fondly. "You wrote to Harry, didn't you?" she asked.

"Maybe."

No one noticed, but Malfoy's cheeks had tinged pink. When he was younger he had also written to the "famous Harry Potter" not that he was going to tell anyone about that.

"I wrote to you as well," Luna commented in her usual dreamy state. Ginny was glad that some of the attention had been taken off her, but she still kept her face hidden.

Remus turned his attention to Harry. "You mean you never got any of the letters?" he asked and Harry shook his head. Lupin bit his lip and turned his questioning eyes on Dumbledore. He owed Dumbledore; he had allowed him to come to Hogwarts even though he was a werewolf, so he didn't like to doubt the man's motives, but still, he couldn't help wondering…

**He had no friends, no other relatives –**

Once again, Sirius noticeably flinched. Harry, noticing this, winced, imaging how bad the third book would be for him.

**he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

_**Mr. H. Potter**_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs**_

"You knew that Potter slept in a cupboard and yet you did nothing?" Surprisingly it was Snape who said this, making sure his voice was completely blank so it didn't reveal what he was feeling. Truthfully, he didn't even _know _what he was feeling.

"The… the letters are addressed using a self-addressing quill," she told him, staring at the book in shock. She vowed write then and there that she would be supervising every letter that the quill addressed from now on, no matter how much time it took. No student at Hogwarts would ever be treated like this again.

_**4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging **_

_**Surrey.**_

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink.**

Ron groaned. Hermione and Harry locked eyes, already knowing what he was so annoyed about.

"_Really _professor? _GREEN _ink?" he yelled dramatically.

McGonagall sniffed angrily. "It was the only color we had left," she said stiffly.

**There was no stamp.**

"Stamp? What's a stamp?" Many people in the Hall echoed. Mr. Weasley, was staring attentively at Hermione but this time it was, surprisingly, Sirius who answered.

"A stamp is an object Muggles put on their letters; sort of like a sticker of some sort." Everyone stared at him incredulously, shocked that he would know such a thing.

"What?" he demanded, looking offended. "I took Muggle Studies." He then smirked and added, "I had to find some way to annoy my mother." The people who knew what Sirius's Mum was like snorted. Amelia was unable to hold back a small laugh that escaped her lips. Snape just sneered at him as usual.

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion,**

All the current Gyffindor students (along with Sirius, Bill, and Charlie) cheered. Molly, Arthur, Remus, and McGonagall smiled proudly.

**an eagle,**

Amelia stopped in her reading to allow herself to smile. Ravenclaw had been her house at Hogwarts. Luna as well was smiling.

**a badger,**

Tonks cupped her hands around her mouth and began to cheer loudly. Malfoy shot her a look of disgust; who would be proud of being in _Hufflepuff?_

**and a snake**

Snape and Draco smiled smugly. (They were too dignified to cheer.)

**surrounding a large letter H.**

Mostly everyone cheered or smiled at that except for Fudge and Umbridge who were both scowling.

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

Fred and George looked horrified at the sorry excuse of a joke, their eyes bugging out of their skulls, their mouths hanging open dumbly.

"Wow, that was so funny, I forgot to laugh," Charlie commented dryly.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter.**

Harry mentally groaned at his past self's stupidity. He should have known better than to open it right where they could see him. If he had then he wouldn't have had to put up with the whole ordeal that his uncle had put him through when trying to hide from the letters.

**He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

Some people face palmed when they heard that Harry went to open his letter right in front of his relatives.

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.** **"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk."**

Harry smirked. "Good."

"What's a whelk?" Neville asked.

Everyone shrugged, not knowing; not even Hermione.

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

Arthur and Molly glared at the book while Hermione looked like she wanted to punch someone (it reminded Harry of the time in third year when she had punched Malfoy in the face; the memory still brought tears of laughter to Ron's eyes).

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon,**

"Only the entire wizard world," Bill commented lightly, though his voice still revealed how angry he was at the way Harry was treated.

**shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge.**

Ron made a face. "Do you have to be so descriptive?"

Harry merely gave him an annoyed look. "I didn't write the book Ron," he said, rolling his eyes. But then he started wondering who _had _written the book and how they knew all these details on his life.

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness - Vernon!"**

Snape rolled his eyes. Petunia was _such _a drama queen.

Harry snorted. "She is such a drama queen."

Snape's eyes widened, horrified at the prospect of thinking like Potter. He settled for glaring at him. Harry defiantly glared right back although this time he was at a loss to what he had done to suddenly make Snape angry.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

"He did WHAT!" Molly shouted. The rest weren't really surprised; they were all already well-informed that Dudley was a right git.

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

"It's not even yours, you bloody son of a—"

"Ginerva Weasley!" Molly yelled loudly, looking appalled. "Watch your language!"

Ginny snapped her mouth shut but defiantly said nothing, glaring at the book as if it were its entire fault.

"**I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."**

"**Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. **

**Harry didn't move.**

Both Ron and Hermione shared anxious looks, knowing Harry was about to lose his temper. Their ears were still ringing from the earful they had gotten when they had first seen him that summer.

"**I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted**.

Everyone winced as Amelia shouted the words that were written in all caps, especially Remus who cringed back and covered his ears with his hands; Amelia's voice had been especially loud thanks to his werewolf hearing. Some people (Snape, Malfoy, Fudge, Umbridge) scowled at her, while others looked at Harry in amusement.

"And there's Harry's famous temper," Hermione said, smiling at him fondly. Watching Hermione smile at Harry like that, Ron felt a spark of jealousy. Why didn't she look at _him_ like that?

Sirius chuckled. "That's an Evans' trait. Trust me, when Lily got angry, you didn't want to be within a ten radius of her. When she loses her temper she's even scarier than Voldemort." He shuddered, remembering a time in fourth year when he had spilled ink all over Lily's homework. He hadn't been able to hear right for weeks.

Harry's mouth twitched into a smile. Evans, Sirius had said; Lily Evans. He had never really given much thought to his mother's maiden name, but he cherished every new thing he learned about her; Aunt Petunia had never told him anything when he asked as a child.

He was also happy to hear that he had something in common with Lily Evans Potter. People were always telling him how much like James he was; it was nice to know he had more things in common with his mother than just his eyes. It made him feel more connected to her somehow.

"**Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.**

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry**

**and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks** **and threw them into the hall,**

"Keep your hands off my godson, Dursley!" Sirius barked.

**slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole,** **Dudley won,** **so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

"And so it begins," Ron said dramamtically.

Harry looked at him in confusion. "So what begins?"

"Your long history of eavesdropping on people's conversations."

Harry did the mature thing and stuck his tongue out at him. He didn't eavesdrop _that _much. I mean sure, there were all those times with Snape and Quirrell, and the Order meetings, and the time at the Yule Ball, and at the Three Broomsticks, and that other time when—

Harry sighed in defeat and scowled to himself. Okay, so maybe he _did_ eavesdrop a lot, but still…

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address - how could they possibly know where he sleeps. You don't think they're watching the house." **

**"Watching - spying - might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

Draco snorted in a undignified way that was very unlike him. Like anyone would want to spy on those pair of useless, filthy muggles! If this was how Potter's relatives treated him, Draco didn't understand why he was always sticking up for muggles and mudbloods.

"**But what should we do, Vernon. Should we write back. Tell them we don't want -" Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything..."**

**"But -" **

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense****?"**

Everyone in the deep hall drew in a sharp breath of shock, even Umbridge, Fudge, and Malfoy. Snape felt a sickening feeling at the bottom of his stomach. That so much as confirmed it; Potter was abused, and no matter how much he hated the boy, it sickened him. McGonagall let out a squawk of surprise and covered her mouth in horror. Although she might not show it often, she was quite fond of Harry, much like she had been of his parents before him.

Ron stared at Harry in shock, who determinedly avoided his gaze, along with Neville who was also looking at him in the same way. Hermione had gotten emotional again and was crying into her hands which now covered her face. Molly looked distraught, Umbridge looked gleeful, Arthur looked angry, and Malfoy looked conflicted, along with Fudge and Percy. Amelia looked sad while Ginny, Remus, and Tonks looked like they would want nothing better than to murder Vernon Dursley.

Sirius was shaking with rage. He willed Harry to meet his gaze, mentally asking him what he wanted to know. Harry shook his head. Despite what his uncle said, Harry had been telling the truth when he had talked with Sirius; his relatives had not beat him. They had threatened that they would, but they had never actually acted on it. The farthest they had gone was a few hard slaps (and one time, a broken arm, but that was mostly Dudley's fault, not his uncle's).

Meanwhile, Dumbledore was suddenly overcome with guilt at the life he had condemned Harry to, even though he knew it couldn't be helped. Squashing the magic out of someone was extremely dangerous. _And Arianna…poor, poor Arianna…_

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"**Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?" **

**"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly.** "**I have burned it."**

"That bloody fucking codger."

"FREDRICK GIDEON WEASLEY!"

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it.**"

Everyone growled at the mention of the cupboard and how it had been on the letter and yet no one cared enough to notice. Mostly everyone glared at Dumbledore though some glared at McGonagall.

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling.**

Ron shuddered. The twins tried to hold back their snickers from behind their hands.

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"Probably was."

**"Er - yes, Harry –**

Harry blinked, surprised that his uncle had called him by his name instead of 'you' or 'boy'.

**about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking... you're really getting a bit big for it...we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom."**

"Your cousin had a _second_ bedroom and you were still forced to sleep in a _cupboard?" _Hermione cried. Ron tried to grab her hand for comfort but she yanked hers away, too upset and distraught. Ron tried not to look hurt, but Harry still noticed his dismayed expression.

**"Why?" said Harry.**

"Why are you questioning it?" Ron asked his best mate disbelievingly.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, it was just a shock. The Dursleys had never been anything but cruel to me, treating me like I was a freak. I thought there must be some catch to why my uncle was suddenly doing something nice to me for no reason at all."

Harry looked straight ahead, determinedly not looking at anyone, but he could still feel their looks of sympathy and pity boring into the back of his skull like laser beams. He _hated _it, and yet not even Ron and Hermione seemed to get that.

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms:**

Everyone made loud exclamations of fury at this. (Besides the obvious)

**one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge),**

Once again, Harry made a face, and everyone started wondering how horrible the woman could be. Surely she wasn't any worse than the Dursleys?

**one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom.**

**It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room.**

Sirius made a vow to spoil Harry senseless when he came to live with him—and Harry _would _be living with him, he didn't give a sodding hell what Dumbledore thought on the matter.

**He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog;**

"Poor dog," Sirius commented, frowning in sympathy for his fellow canine.

**in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been cancelled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

Hermione and Luna looked horrified; after all, Luna might not be the sanest person, but she was still a Ravenclaw.

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't want him in there... I need that room... make him get out..." **

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

Hermione smiled at him in understanding. "I know how you feel. My parents took away my letter as well."

Harry looked at his friend curiously. "Really?" Hermione had never spoken about how her parents had reacted to her being magical. "I thought your parents accepted you being a witch," he said, thinking back to the one and only time he had saw Mr. and Mrs. Granger, in Diagon Alley the summer before his second year.

"Oh, they did," she said, "but when they first read the letter they didn't believe it. They thought it was some sort of sick, practical joke someone was playing on me."

"How did they finally believe it?" he asked curiously.

"Professor McGonagall came a few days later to explain everything."

Hermione smiled at her Transfiguration Professor who smiled back. When she had first met Hermione Granger she had known immediately that she would turn out to be one of the brightest students Hogwarts had ever seen. She had expected her to end up in Ravenclaw and was pleasantly surprised when she was Sorted into Gryffindor instead.

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry,** **made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -"**

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind**.

When Amelia read that it oddly reminded Harry of the time he had grabbed the mountain troll around the neck while trying to save Hermione.

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

**"Go to your cupboard- **

Sirius growled for about the hundredth time that day.

**I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry.** **"Dudley - go - just go." **

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again. And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan**.

Everyone who knew him well groaned, Ron and Hermione the loudest. Harry looked offended. "And what exactly is wrong with my plans?" he asked hotly.

Sirius smirked at him. "If they're anything like your father's, then they're pretty damn bad," he told him, remembering many of his best mate's plans that had backfired on him. Remus nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, no offense mate, but they're pretty bad," Ron told him. Harry just huffed. They weren't _that _bad.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning.**

Ron made a face at getting up so early.

**Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys.**

**He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.** **He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first**.

"That's actually…not a bad idea," Hermione admitted slowly, looking surprised that he had actually thought something though. Harry shot her a smug look.

**His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door - Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat - something **_**alive!**_

"Please be your uncle, please be your uncle, please be your uncle," Neville was chanting under his breath. People looked at him amusedly, while Harry smiled, knowing Neville was right.

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

There was an outbreak of laughter.

"Great codger deserved it," Sirius muttered darkly, and was eternally grateful when Molly didn't overhear. Merlin, that woman was a pain in the ass, pardon his French.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap.** **Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

Ron _once again _made a face at the mention of the green ink. Both his friends rolled their eyes at him, Harry in amusement, and Hermione in frustration.

"**I want -" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails,**

Luna hummed to herself and rubbed her mouth thoughtfully, wondering if a mouth full of nails hurt.

**"if they can't deliver them they'll just give up."**

McGonagall scoffed at the muggle's ignorance and gullibility. As if _that _would stop them.

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways,**

Malfoy gave the book a haughty look, looking offended.

**Petunia, they're not like you and me," **

Ron snorted. "And trust me, we're glad of that." Fred and George sniggered, giving their brother an approving look.

**said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"Is he really that daft?" Charlie exclaimed incredulously.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Paranoid much?"

"How about 'Crazy much'?" George quipped.

"Or, 'Insane much'?" Fred suggested.

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand.**

Remus thought they were already out of hand, but decided not to point that out.

**Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window.** **While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor,**

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

"Oh, I don't know…" Fred began.

"…who would want to talk to…"

"…such a scrawny git as Harrykins over here?"

"…only the…"

"…entire wizard world!" the twins finished together.

A few people laughed but Harry just stared off into space, massaging his temples. Fred and George finishing each other's sentences was usually amusing but now it was doing nothing but giving him a massive headache.

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

Hermione frowned, knowing that couldn't be a good sign from judging Harry's uncle's character.

**"No post on Sundays,"**

"No what?" Neville asked.

"No post," Hermione explained. "In the muggle world letters aren't delivered on Sunday; there's no post."

**he reminded them cheerfully** **as he spread marmalade on his newspapers,**

"Yep, he really has lost it. He may even be worse than my Great Aunt Carina," Sirius said, thinking back to his great aunt, the mother of his aunt Druella, who had gone senile in the last few years before her death.

**"no damn letters today -"**

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one.**

"Why didn't you just pick one up off the ground?" Charlie asked, a faint, amused smile gracing his lips.

Harry blushed. "I don't know."

"Because he's the youngest Seeker in a century, that's why!" George called out. This only made Harry blush more as Snape scowled and McGonagall smiled proudly.

**"Out! OUT!"**

Remus winced at the volume of the yells. Amelia's eyes flicked over to him for a second. 'Sorry,' she mouthed.

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall.**

Sirius growled. Harry sucked in a sharp breath, suddenly feeling as if he just impacted something hard, but he managed to hide it.

**When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time**.

Sirius shuddered, a slightly disturbed look in his eyes. "I absolutely _hate _mustaches." Remus couldn't stop himself from cracking up laughing at this, being the only other one who knew why Sirius hated mustaches.

"Why do hate mustaches?" Ron asked curiously.

Sirius shuddered again as if remembering something unpleasant. "You don't want to know," was his only reply.

"**I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue.**

The twins were snickering, imagining what Vernon must look like with only half his mustache.

**Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. ** **Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. "Shake 'em off... shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

Everyone was thinking along the same lines—Vernon Dursley was definitely crazy.

Sirius nodded to himself. "Yep, definitely crazier than Great Aunt Carina."

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day.**

Mrs. Weasley gasped and Harry groaned when she gave him that horrified, pitying look, and started saying things along the lines of "oh that poor thing" or "no wonder he's so skinny", and promising to feed him several seven course meals, and kept on fussing over his health some more. The Weasley children (besides Percy) all gave him looks of sympathy. It's not as if they didn't love their mother, but they knew she could be a bit overbearing at times.

**By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering...**

Wondering what?" Fred asked Madame Bones, but she just shook her head.

"It doesn't say."

So then Fred turned to Harry. "Wondering what?" he asked for the second time.

The Boy Who Lived gave him an agitated look. "How am I supposed to know?" he asked, a twinge of annoyance seeping into his tone. "This was four years ago; I don't remember," he told them, not understanding why Fred wanted to know in the first place. It's not like it was any of his business.

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day.**

**They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

**'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter. Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address: Mr. H. Potter Room 17 Railview Hotel Cokeworth Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way.**

Sirius cursed. Molly sent him a disapproving look which he ignored.

**The woman stared.**

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

"**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

Draco stifled a yawn, blinking rapidly as an effort to stay awake as he started to nod off again.

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked**

Ginny whistled, looking impressed. "It must be bad if Dudley noticed."

**Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. **

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled.** **"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television. " **

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday - and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television - then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.**

"Happy birthday, Harry!" many people called out. Harry had to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun - last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

Sirius growled and then started to come up with ideas for things to give Harry for his birthday. He didn't care that it was still around nine months away—it was going to be the best birthday he'd ever have!

**Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.** **He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

Remus's eyes widened. That better not be what he thought it was, and if it was, he better not have brought it anywhere near the children!

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine.** **One thing was certain; there was no television in there.**

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together.**

Everyone looked at Harry incredulously at how crazy his uncle was. He just shrugged in response; it's not as if he'd _asked _to live with them.

**"And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!" A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old row boat bobbing in the iron-grey water below them.**

Harry shuddered. That man had been just plain old creepy. He had looked as if he belonged in some sort of horror movie.

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces.**

Molly whimpered and mumbled something about hyperthermia, shooting a concerned look at Harry.

**After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas.**

"Those aren't rations!" Molly cried.

Sirius glanced at his godson out of the corner of his eye, and realized not for the first time that he was much too skinny, as if he had been starved. Sirius growled, silently cursing the Dursleys. When he got his hands on them…

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up. **

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

Hermione rolled his eyes. "You're so pessimistic, Harry."

Harry privately agreed, but it's not like a lot of good things had happened in his life, so he didn't see the point of looking on the brighter side of things if his life still sucked.

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket. The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger.**

Fred and George had put their heads together and were scribbling on a piece of parchment and mumbling things like "boils" and "poisonous spiders". This was more than a little worrying to Harry, although he supposed he should feel lucky that Sirius had not joined in on the twins' plan to exact vengeance on the Dursleys.

**Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

People stared at the boy as if he was crazy.

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea? One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds... twenty ... ten... nine - maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him.**

"Do it," Neville whispered and Harry had to quirk a smile.

**- three... two... one...**

**BOOM.**

Many people jumped in surprise when Madame Bones read that. Sirius nearly tumbled out of his seat.

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

Amelia looked up from the open book and flipped the page one final time so it was now on the start of chapter four. "That's the end of the chapter," she said. She hurriedly passed the book to McGonagall, her curiosity peaked. She, like nearly everyone else in the room, wondered who was at the door.

McGonagall took the book from Madame Bones and read in a clear voice, "**CHAPTER FOUR: THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS**"

Dumbledore smiled fondly, thinking of the Gatekeeper, and the Golden Trio worriedly wondered where Hagrid was at this moment, as McGonagall began to read.


	6. The Keeper of the Keys

_**The Keeper of the Keys**_

_Amelia looked up from the open book and flipped the page one final time so it was now on the start of chapter four. "That's the end of the chapter," she said. She hurriedly passed the book to McGonagall, her curiosity peaked. She, like nearly everyone else in the room, wondered who was at the door._

_McGonagall took the book from Madame Bones and read in a clear voice, "__**CHAPTER FOUR: THE KEEPER OF THE KEYS**__"_

_Dumbledore smiled fondly, thinking of the Gatekeeper, and the Golden Trio worriedly wondered where Hagrid was at this moment, as McGonagall began to read._

**BOOM. **

Remus flinched and rubbed his ears as McGonagall's loud voice vibrated through his eardrums. Stupid, bloody werewolf hearing.

**They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. **

Sirius pouted. That stupid bloody pig was better off sleeping; no one wanted to hear from him again. He reminded Sirius of a young Lucius Malfoy; bratty and spoiled.

**"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly. **

Nearly everyone snorted while others raised an eyebrow at the book disbelievingly. Arthur Weasley was frowning at the book, looking displeased. After supporting Muggles as his career, he was concerned by how this book was clearly giving Muggles a bad reputation. Just because these Muggles were foul, loathsome, sorry excuses for human being didn't mean all of them were, but these books weren't helping, nor were they helping Harry. If anything, they were making everything worse for him.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands –**

"What?!" Molly shrieked, mirroring Hermione's current look of shock and outrage. "How dare he bring that into a house with children! They could get hurt!"

Remus growled. He had had his suspicions when the book had mentioned the long, thin package in the last chapter. Mostly everyone else in the room was looking confused, not knowing why everyone was acting like this since they knew next to nothing about Muggles.

"What's a rifle?" Sirius asked, immediately wanting to know since it seemed to endanger his godson.

"I thought you took Muggle Studies," Ginny stated and Sirius snorted.

"Yeah, but I didn't listen all that much. I only remember some things. So what's a rifle?" he repeated.

Hermione sighed. "It's a Muggle weapon and it's extremely lethal. It's basically the Muggle version of the Killing Curse," she said, casting a dark look at the book in the Transfiguration professor's hands.

"WHAT! Why that little…" Sirius trailed off when he wasn't able to come up with a word nasty enough.

**now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

More glares were sent toward the book which McGonagall tried the best to ignore as she read on.

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you — I'm armed!" **

People growled at the reminder.

**There was a pause. Then — **

**SMASH! **

Once again, Remus winced. Honestly, did there have to be so many bloody sound effects?

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor. **

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway.**

Everyone (minus the obvious) smiled at the mention of the giant man who it was obvious was supposed to be Hagrid. But then their smiles dropped when they turned their eyes to the seat at the professors' table where Hagrid was supposed to sit.

The seat was still empty.

**His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

At the mention of beetles Hermione smirked as she was reminded of Rita Skeeter.

Sirius chuckled at the way harry described hagrid in the book. "You make him sound like some sort of murderer, Harry!"

Harry just smiled sheepishly in return.

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all. **

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey…"**

Someone snorted in amusement while Dumbledore shook his head smiling fondly. Good ol' Hagrid.

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear. **

**"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

"He's not a stranger, Harry, he's Hagrid!"

Harry looked at his best mate irritably. "I _know, _Ron. This was in the past."

"Okay, okay!" Ron held his hands up in surrender and scooted farther away from him so he was sitting closer to Hermione. Harry's constant mood swings were giving him whiplash. He was acting like a girl who was PMSing!

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon. **

Snape rolled his eyes at Petunia's cowardice. For someone who had wanted to be a wizard once upon a time, she wasn't to perceptive toward the idea now, it seemed.

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant. **

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile. **

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes." **

"If I had a dime for how many times someone told me that, I would be rich," Harry stated. Ron was going to point out that he already _was _rich if the money in his vault was anything to judge by, but decided to keep his mouth shut.

Even though he was annoyed that all anyone seemed to tell Harry about his parents was that he looked like his dad and had Mum's eyes, Harry couldn't help but smile a bit at the memory of the first time he had heard that. Before that, he hadn't known anything about his parents except that they had died "in a car crash".

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise. **

**"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!" **

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune,"**

"Yeah, go Hagrid!" Sirius cheered. "It's about time someone shut him up!"

Umbridge narrowed her eyes. Hagrid, had that filthy murderer said? The Care of Magical Creatures professor who had currently not been in attendance? She made a tsking noise under her breath. So far from what she had heard about this Hagrid character, he didn't seem like a suitable teacher for innocent children. That would have to be dealt with.

**said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room. **

All of the females in the room (minus Umbridge) let out a breath that they hadn't known they had been holding. At least that danger was out of the way.

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on. **

**"Anyway — Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

Ron's eyes widened when the Hagrid in the book mentioned taste, which meant that it was something to eat. "Don't eat it, harry!" he told the boy next to him, momentarily forgetting about his best mate's irritable mood. If Hagrid had cooked whatever that was, then it wouldn't be all that good if Hagrid's rock cakes were anything to judge by.

"I didn't eat it," Harry told him, suddenly wishing he would just shut up. They would never get through these bloody stupid books if people kept interrupting. "I thought about eating it, but I didn't since I didn't think it to be the best idea after Hagrid said he sat on it," he explained. As far as Harry was concerned, the quality of the food didn't matter; it was the thought that counts. 

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with **_**Happy Birthday Harry **_**written on it in green icing.**

Molly smiled. "Well, that was nice of him." Harry nodded although his irritated expression didn't change as he stared straight ahead at the book in McGonagall's hands. That had been the first birthday cake he had ever gotten.

Ron, meanwhile, had groaned when the book mentioned the green icing. First McGonagall; not Hagrid too!

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, looking appalled. "Where are your manners?"

Harry felt an unfamiliar feeling of rage fill him, making him feel angry and annoyed at the Weasley matriarch's words when normally he wouldn't. That had been happening a lot lately, ever since Voldemort's return.

Sensing his godson's sudden anger and predicting that he was about to say something he would later regret, Sirius quickly jumped into the conversation by saying, "Hey, Molly, lay off him. A giant of a man just broke down the door, told him he looks like his parents, then gave him a birthday cake. The kid's gonna be a bit too shocked to think about manners." Honestly, what made her think she had the right to scold his godson?

Harry started when his godfather called him a kid, and glared. "I'm not a kid," he protested.

"Whatever you say, Harry," he replied lightly, ruffling Harry's hair.

**The giant chuckled. **

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." **

_Not for long, _Umbridge thought maliciously, her pink lipsticked lips curving up into a vindictive smirk. Amelia eyed her wearily, knowing she was up to no good. She was _always _up to no good.

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm. **

Ron snorted. "Yeah, he does tend to do that."

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

Sirius snorted while Molly looked disapproving. He shouldn't be drinking in front of children!

Umbridge tsked and shook her head, jotting something down on a piece of parchment while Draco wrinkled his nose up in disdain. _Stupid, drunken idiot._

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there.**

"HA!" Umbridge suddenly shouted making everyone jump in surprise except for Dumbledore who was always composed in any situation. Remus winced at the volume. "He used magic! He was expelled! That filthy halfbreed isn't allowed to use magic—that's against Ministry laws!" Umbridge looked smug. Harry glared and Sirius snarled in defense of his other "halfbreed" werewolf friend. There was nothing wrong with halfbreeds unless they were people like Fernir Greyback.

Fudge turned toward Dumbledore, smiling at Umbridge's accusation. "What do you have to say about _that?"_

"I assure you, Cornelius," Dumbledore began, "Hagrid was in no way breaking any Ministry laws. He had special permission from me to use magic while picking up Harry." Umbridge and Fudge visibly deflated at this statement.

**It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath. **

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. **

Harry shook his head disbeievingly. He never understood how Hagrid could fit so many things in his pockets; they were big, but not _that _big. Like, they certainly couldn't fit that owl that he had stuffed in there.

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.**

Ron sighed longingly as his stomach rumbled with hunger.

**Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley." **

**The giant chuckled darkly. **

**"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

Nearly everyone chuckled or at least smiled beside the obvious. That was so true; everyone who had seen Dudley knew that he was about the size of a small elephant.

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant.**

"It's not nice to stare," Luna pointed out dreamily, staring straight ahead. Harry gave her an odd look before looking away.

**Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are." **

"That's better," Mrs. Weasley said kindly in a motherly way. Harry ignored her, her words for some reason making him irritated.

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. **

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."**

Sirius growled at the reminder that his godson knew nothing of the Wizarding World. He should have grown up with a wizarding family—he should have grown up with him!

**"Er — no," said Harry. **

**Hagrid looked shocked. **

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly. **

_Oh Harry, it's not your fault, _Hermione sighed. She decided not to voice this out loud just in case Harry snapped at her. But she felt sorry for her friend. Even though she knew he hated sympathy, she couldn't help it. He put too much weight on his shoulders; he always blamed himself for every little thing that went wrong. It wasn't fair; he didn't deserve this life.

**"**_**Sorry**_**?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud!**

Sirius sighed. "Me too, Hagrid. Me too."

Tonks looked at her cousin with a teasing look on her face. "You know you are talking to a book, right?"

Sirius decided to do the mature thing and stick his tongue out at her.

**Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?" **

**"All what?" asked Harry. **

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered.**

Remus winced for about the hundredth time that day. Why did Hagrid have to _yell _so much?

**"Now wait jus' one second!" **

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall. **

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy — this boy! — knows nothin' abou' — about ANYTHING?"**

Sirius sighed. "Nice going, Hagrid. Now you're gonna make him feel stupid. No offense, but Hagrid's crap at explaining things."

Remus's eyes filled with mirth at his friend's words; he was such a hypocrite. "Well, isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black."

Sirius turned toward him with a confused expression on his face. "What do you mean?"

The werewolf just shook his head, remembering the incident in the Whomping Willow near the end of Harry's third year. He hadn't exactly done too well at explaining things then.

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad. **

"See!"

"No one corrected you, Sirius."

**"I know **_**some **_**things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff." **

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About **_**our **_**world, I mean. **_**Your **_**world. **_**My **_**world. **_**Yer parents' world**_**." **

**"What world?" **

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode. **

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed. **

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble."**

Across the table from him, Neville raised an eyebrow at Harry as if to say "_is this guy for real?" _harry merely shrugged in response.

**Hagrid stared wildly at Harry. **

**"But yeh must know about yer mum and dad," he said. "I mean, they're **_**famous**_**. You're **_**famous**_**."**

Sirius sighed. He knew that his best mate would have loved that his son was famous. Sirius just wished he was famous for something else other than lily and James' death. When you thought about it like that, it seemed ridiculous that Harry actually _liked _the fact that he was famous.

**"What? My — my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?" **

**"Yeh don' know… yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare. **

**"Yeh don' know what yeh **_**are**_**?" he said finally.**

Harry almost snorted out loud at that line. Although he was still in a bad mood, he remembered that when Hagrid had said that it had been a little disconcerting. He had felt like some alien or mutant or something.

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice. **

"Damn," Sirius swore. Molly sent him one of her famous glares, which to the Weasley children's amazement, seemed to have no effect on him.

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

Remus realized something when Harry's uncle said this. "Does he ever call you by your name? Instead of just 'boy'?" Sirius looked at his godson, also wanting to hear the answer.

"Not really. Maybe once or twice." Anger flared in Remus's eyes and Sirius's hands tightened into fists, his nails biting into his skin.

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage. **

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?" **

**"Kept **_**what **_**from me?" said Harry eagerly. **

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic. **

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

Snape rolled his eyes.

**"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry — yer a wizard." **

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard. **

**"I'm a **_**what**_**?" gasped Harry. **

Everyone laughed at his reaction. Harry crossed his arms across his chest defensively. Hermione giggled at him and Harry whipped around to face her. "If you think it's so funny then how did you react then?" Hermione stopped laughing and she smiled slightly as she remembered how she found out when McGonagall came to inform her she was a wizard.

"_You are a witch, Miss Granger."_

_For a moment there was nothing but silence. Hermione stared at the sternlooking woman who had introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, her brown eyes wide and shocked. Her father, Thomas granger stood behind her next to her mother, his right hand clasped over her shoulder. The silence was deafening and then when Hermione's mother, Joanne Granger, finally gathered her bearings, she blinked rapidly, as if making sure this wasn't some crazy dream._

"_Excuse me?" she breathed faintly, shocked. Her daughter was in a similar state of shock, staring at the woman in front of her. She wanted desperately to say something but her tongue didn't seem to be working right. She couldn't be a witch. It was impossible; things like that didn't exist. Magic wasn't real; it only existed in make-believe fairy tales._

_But then the young eleven year old started thinking. What about that time when she had broken that window without even touching it? or that time when she had turned Courtney price into a mouse when she was picking on her? If that wasn't magic, then what was?_

_Her father suddenly stepped forward, ready to speak up. "You know, I don't know who you are, but I really don't appreciate you barging into my house and feeding my daughter these lies-"_

"_Daddy, wait," Hermione said, holding up a hand that she hoped would silence him. He stopped talking and gave her a questionable look. She took a step toward the strange woman, professor McGonagall._

"_Prove it."_

_Professor McGonagall looked down at her, confusion showing on her face. "Pardon me?"_

"_Prove it," Hermione challenged, her head held high as if daring her to back down. "If magic is real, then prove it."_

_The professor sighed. "If I must."_

_Hermione and her parents gasped, suddenly taking a step back. Because where Professor McGonagall was standing was suddenly a tabby cat with marking around its eyes. "Wow," Hermione breathed in wonder, taking a step closer._

"_Hermione, don't," her father warned, but she ignored him, walking forward and kneeling beside the cat._

"_Professor McGonagall?" she whispered. The cat meowed in response and Hermione smiled, scratching behind her ear. _

"_I believe you."_

Hermione smiled slightly at the memory and brought her attention back to the book as McGonagall read on.

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter." **

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green**

Ron made a face again.

**to **_**Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. **_**He pulled out the letter and read: **

_**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY **_

_**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE **_

Fudge fumed over the fact that that manipulating liar was headmaster. If things went his way, then soon Dumbledore wouldn't be headmaster; he would be shunned from the magic community entirely.

_**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**_

Neville raised his eyebrows. Dumbledore sure had a lot of titles.__

_**Dear Mr. Potter, **_

_**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. **_

_**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. **_

_**Yours sincerely, **_

_**Minerva McGonagall, **_

_**Deputy Headmistress **_

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Out of all your questions you could ask, you ask that one?"

"It was the last thing I read!" he defended.

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl **

Ginny and Luna whimpered, looking appalled. _That poor, poor owl._

— **a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl — a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down: **

Dumbledore thought this was quite impressive. He could hardly read Hagrid's writing right side up.

_**Dear Professor Dumbledore, **_

_**Given Harry his letter. Taking him to buy his things tomorrow. **_

_**Weather's horrible. Hope you're well. **_

_**Hagrid **_

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone. **

"Well, it is for wizards," Remus snorted while Hermione tried to explain to an enthusiastic Arthur Weasley what a telephone was.

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly. **

Malfoy almost snorted, imaging how stupid Potter probably looked.

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight. **

**"He's not going," he said.**

"Oh, _shut up," _Sirius groaned, banging his head on the table repeatedly with each word. Amelia made a note to watch Black more closely from now on, thinking he might be innocent after all. He had been angry at the Dursleys and had been showing concern toward his godson, someone that the Ministry thought he wanted to kill. That wasn't the way a mass murderer acted.

**Hagrid grunted. **

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said. **

**"A what?" said Harry, interested. **

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on." **

Remus sighed. Although Hagrid had the right idea, he made it seem like all Muggles were bad, which they weren't, despite the views purebloods had on them.

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him!**

Dumbledore's face darkened at these words as he remembered Arriana. He closed his eyes as he tried to shut off the sudden pain that filled him. _I'm so sorry, sister._

Sirius growled, really, really hoping that Harry had been telling the truth when he said that the Dursleys never beat him. For Harry's sake, he would try not to kill him, but, _damn, _they were making it really, really hard.

**Wizard indeed!" **

**"You **_**knew**_**?" said Harry. "You **_**knew **_**I'm a — a wizard?" **

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "**_**Knew**_**! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?**

Sirius gripped the chair in a death grip as if that would physically stop him from bolting out the door and apparating to privet Drive. Lily was _not _dratted, she was the most wonderful woman Sirius had ever met and she had been like a sister to him.

**Oh, she got a letter just like that her for what she was — a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

"As they should be," Molly said, her voice oddly choked as she thought about this woman talking about her own dead sister that way. She hadn't seen Lily at Hogwarts much because of their age difference so she didn't know her too well, but she had met her a few times at the Potters' annual Christmas Party they used to have each year, and Molly could tell that she was a wonderful woman. 

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years. **

Snape frowned, knowing this was true. Lily had always talked about wanting to make up with her sister, but it seemed that had never happened.

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as — as —**_**abnormal **_**— and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!" **

Everyone except Umbridge was appaled at this. That was how he hadfound out about his parents deaths? Even Draco couldn't help frowning slightly at that.

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

Remus's face darkened while Sirius growled at the reminder.

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!" **

Everyone (sans Umbridge) agreed to everything hagrid said, even Snape, malfoy, and Fudge, though reluctantly. Lily and James Potter were someof the bravest people—they had fought Voldemort thrice times and lived—it was an outrage to their memories that they were killed in a car crash, just as it was an insult to Cedric's memory to say his death had been an accident.

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently. **

Some of the anger faded from Sirius's face and he now looked more sad than angry, as did Remus, knowing hagrid was now going to speak of the Potters death. The hall suddenly grew quiet, waiting for the Transfiguration professor to read the words.

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious. **

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone's gotta — yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'." **

Harry thought about how he would feel if he hadn't known his backstory when he went to Hogwarts. Everyone whispering about him and pointing at his scar when he walked passed probably would have creeped him out a lot.

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys. **

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it…" **

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows —" **

**"Who?" **

**"Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

Dumbledore sighed, not understanding why people refused to say the name. Not saying his name only gave Voldemort more power over everyone.

**"Why not?" **

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went… bad**

"'Bad'?" Sirius questioned with a raised eyebrow. Boy was that the understatement of the century.

**. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…" Hagrid gulped, but no words came out. **

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested. **

**"Nah — can't spell it. All right —**_**Voldemort**_**. "**

Everyone in the room flinched except for Dumbledore, Harry, Sirius, and remus. Honestly, it was just a name. What would happen if they said it? It's not like they would get struck by lightning.

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power,**

Ron sent a dark look at Malfoy when he wasn't looking.

**'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches… terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him**

Neville smiled as he thought of his parents and all the stories his grandmother had told him about them standing up to You-Know-Who and his followers. Of course, the stories were mostly about his father; Neville got the sense that Gran had never liked his mother too much.

— **an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway. **

Those words scared Harry more than he cared to admit. _Not just then anyway. _Would voldemort attack the school this time? Take it over just like he was taking control of the Dementors? He couldn't bear the fact that the one place he felt safe—his _home—_might someday be infiltrated.

And then him and his loved ones would have nowhere to hide.

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day!**

Sirius smiled. Still to this day he had no idea why Dumbledore thought it was a good idea to name James Head Boy. He remembered Lily's face when she found out—she had looked like her worst nightmare had just come true. Even James himself had claimed that Dumbledore had gone insane.

**Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before… probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side. **

All those who knew James and Lily knew that this was completely true. They would have never surrendered to Voldemort. They would have rather died.

And they did.

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em… maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way.**

Dumbledore sighed, thinking about the prophecy. No, it wasn't lily and James who Voldemort had been after, it had been Harry. They needn't have died, but they did, giving their last breaths in order to protect the son they loved more than anything in the world.

**All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' — an' —" **

Sirius took a shuddering breath and closed his eyes, trying to block out all of the memories and images that suddenly assaulted him. No, he couldn't think about that. He wouldn't be able to handle it if he did.

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn. **

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad — knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find — anywa… **

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, too.**

Sirius shuddered at the thought of his godson dying. He would never let that happen; he would rather die. He wouldn't fail Harry like he had failed them.

**Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh —**

Subconsciously, harry rubbed the scar on his forehead, not even fully realizing he was doing it.

**took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnons, the Bones,**

Amelia winced remembering her fallen brother and his wife. She had long since made peace with their deaths but that didn't mean it still didn't hurt.

**the Prewetts **

Molly sniffled at the mention of her dead twin brothers and Arthur put his arm around her for comfort. All the Weasleys, even Percy, bowed their heads in respect to the uncles they had never got a chance to know.

— **an' you was only a baby, an' you lived." **

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before — and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh. **

Harry closed his eyes, now remembering that laugh all to clearly and the face that went with it. It had haunted his nightmares for months now.

**Hagrid was watching him sadly. **

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot… ." **

Sirius closed his eyes again, thinking of that night. How he should have fought Hagrid more to take his godson… how he never should have went after Peter…

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. **

**Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched. **

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured —**

Tonks swore she saw a shadow of the wolf appear in Remus' eyes at those words and she turned toward him, placing her hand on his shoulder. "it's okay," she told him softly, "he's never going back there." For some reason her voice seemed to soothe him and he calmed down.

Sirius meanwhile, wasn't.

He was shaking all over with fury. All he could see was red. "Sirius," came his godson's voice from beside him, "I'm fine, calm down. It's in the past."

He was right; it _was _in the past. But he should have been there… he should have been there for him…

**and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion —**

Sirius didn't even bother saying anything, he _couldn't. _He was so bloody angry that he couldn't even speak; he thought he would explode from the weight of it all. Harry put a hand on his shoulder, trying to reassure him that it was okay, but he knew it wasn't. Everything was far, far from okay. His life was so screwed up and there was nothing he could do about it.

**asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types — just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end —" **

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word…" **

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent. **

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor. **

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them. **

**"But what happened to Vol-, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

Ron was surprised Harry had called him You-Know-Who. He was sure that was the only time he'd done that.

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see… he was gettin' more an' more powerful — why'd he go? **

**"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die.**

"LIES!" Umbridge shouted. "HE IS NOT BACK!"

"HE IS!" Harry yelled. His temper flared at the woman but before he could yell some more Hermione pulled him back and clamped her hand over his mouth.

"The last thing you want is another detention with her," she whispered, a tinge of fear in her voice. As a reminder, the back of Harry's hand gave a painful twingle as he remembered his previous detention using her quill.

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back. **

Harry sighed. No, he came back alright. It just wasn't for another four years.

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on — **_**I **_**dunno what it was, no one does — but somethin' about you stumped him, all right." **

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? **

Hermione smiled warmly at him. "That's how most of us Muggleborns feel. It seems impossible at first."

**He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard?**

Remus chuckled. "It doesn't exactly work like that, though I wish it did."

**If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football? **

"What is a football?" Arthur asked.

"It's a Muggle sport," Ron replied who had often heard Dean go on about it in the dormitory.

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard." **

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. **

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?" **

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it… every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry… chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach… dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back… and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him? **

Fred and George grinned at the memory. That had been wicked awesome!

Harry winced. To him that memory was only a reminder that he was a Parseltoungue, and that he shared that special ability with Voldemort because the ability had somehow been given to him when Voldemort tried unsuccessfully to kill him.

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him. **

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts." **

"Unfortunately," said boy muttered.

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight. **

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish — spell books and wands and —" **

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled—"**

Fudge snorted. Dumbledore was the _worst _headmaster Hogwarts ever had. He was even worse than Headmaster Nigellus, and that was saying something because everyone had hated him.

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

Everyones eyes widened and McGonagall mentally face palmed as she read ahead. She knew that hagrid always had a strong reaction when someone insulted Dumbledore, but doing that to that boy was just uncalled for.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, **

**"NEVER —" he thundered, "— INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!" **

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

There was silence and everyone burst out laughing. Amelia tried to hide her amusement under the close scrutiny of the Minister, and Molly tried to look disapproving but even she failed miserbly.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them. **

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard. **

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do." **

There was more laughter while McGonagall tsked at Book-Hagrid for attempting to use Transfiguration for a punishment.

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows. **

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff — one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."**

The Minister glared at Dumbledore when this was said and Umbridge tsked some more, scribbling something on her parchment. The Golden Trio, noticing this, shared a worried look with each other.

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry. **

**"Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth.**

_For something that he didn't even do, _the Golden Trio thought.

**In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." **

**"Why were you expelled?"**

Sirius shook his head, knowing that wasn't going to work. He and James would always pester him about it but he would never tell—just change the subject.

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that." **

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry. **

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' doormice in one o' the pockets." **

"That is the end," McGonagall announced, passing it to the person who sat next to her, who happened to be Snape. Snape scowled and immediately passed it off to Dumbledore, having no interest in reading about Potter's life.

Dumbledore opened the book and with a cheerful look on his face, he read, "**CHAPTER FIVE: DIAGON ALLEY"**

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	7. Diagon Alley

_**Diagon Alley**_

"_That is the end," McGonagall announced, passing it to the person who sat next to her, who happened to be Snape. Snape scowled and immediately passed it off to Dumbledore, having no interest in reading about Potter's life._

_Dumbledore opened the book and with a cheerful look on his face, he read, "__**CHAPTER FIVE: DIAGON ALLEY**__"_

Sirius couldn't quite tell what he was feeling in that moment as Dumbledore read the chapter title. He was happy, that much he knew, happy that Harry was finally entering the wizard world where he belonged, and although he was grateful to Hagrid for rescuing him from the Dursleys, and taking him to by his school supplies, he couldn't help the tiny twinge of jealousy he felt, wishing that _he _was the one with Harry that day four years ago.

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.**

_**It was a dream**_**, he told himself firmly.**

"_Harry," _Ron started, sounding exasperated, "it was _not _a dream!"

"For the love of Merlin, I _know, _Ron! Will you just shut up already?"

Ron looked offended and others who knew Harry well seemed shocked at how he was acting since he was usually so nice and polite. Malfoy and some of the others who didn't really know Harry were mildly surprised that the infamous 'Golden Trio' were conflicting.

Dumbledore sighed, looking at Harry sympathetically. (Though he made sure not to look him in the eye). He knew that all the anger that the boy was feeling was no doubtedly coming from his connection to Voldemort. Even though he wanted to, he knew he could not tell Harry this, for fear that Voldemort could discover the connection and take control.

_**I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard.**_

Sirius fists clenched at the mention of the cupboard, something that wasn't becoming quite unusual for him.

At the Ravenclaw table sitting next to Ginny, Luna Lovegood hummed to herself, thinking it sad that whenever something good happened to him, Harry Potter immediately assumed it was a dream, most likely because of his ill-treatment. Either that or the wrackspurts had gotten into his brain.

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.**

_**And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door**_**, Harry thought, his heart sinking. But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.**

Hermione sighed sadly, although she looked understanding. For _days _after Professor McGonagall told her she was a witch, she still couldn't get it through her head that it was real. It wasn't until she had set foot into the Wizarding World, in Diagon Alley, that she had truly believed that she was a witch, and that it wasn't one great big dream.

**Tap. Tap. Tap.**

"**All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."**

**He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him.**

Every time Hagrid's name was mentioned, he couldn't help but glance at Hagrid's empty seat at the staff table, wondering where he was and if he was okay. His worry had only been intensified at the snide remarks Malfoy had made in Care of Magical Creatures class. Where _was _he? Was he perhaps doing something for the Order? Was it dangerous?

**The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Never mind, it's just the paper. No one cares about the rubbish the _Daily Prophet _writes anymore, and if you do then you're an idiot," he said bluntly, staring pointedly at Umbridge and Cornelius Fudge as he did so. It was completely ridiculous; everyone thought him to be a cold-hearted murderer, the Ministry were all cowards and idiots, Voldemort was rising and they were doing nothing to put a stop to it.

Harry nodded in agreement to Sirius' words, thinking darkly of all that rubbish Rita Skeeter had published about him.

**Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him.**

George raised his eyebrows. "You might want to get that checked out, mate," he said in mock concern.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound normal," Fred added.

**He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered on to the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

Hermione's eyes widened. "Why's it doing that?" she asked, her brown eyes wide and looking alarmed. "Is it not trained or something?"

Some of the Gryffindor students and former students chuckled at her tone. "Hermione, relax," Bill said in that even, collected voice of his that seemed able to make anyone calm down, even Mrs. Weasley when she was on one of her rants. "It's a pay owl which means it works for the _Prophet. _It's waiting for its payment."

Hermione flushed slightly. "Oh."

"**Don't do that."**

Harry glared at Ron before he could open his mouth and say something that Harry would most likely have to respond with, "_I _know, _Ron." _Or perhaps he wouldn't have said anything because he was still mad at Harry for telling him to shut up.

**Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.**

"**Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl-"**

"No, really?" Malfoy said sarcastically, rolling his eyes as he leaned back against the table, ignoring the glare Potter sent his way.

"**Pay him," Hagrid grunted on the sofa.**

Many people rolled their eyes in exasperation. He didn't know how, he grew up with Muggles!

Molly tutted. "He should be a little more helpful," she commented, causing Harry to get angry on Hagrid's behalf.

"Hagrid's trying, Mrs. Weasley, and contrary to what you seem to believe, he has helped me in more ways than I could ever count. He was one of my first friends so I would appreciate it if you didn't insult him."

"**What?"**

"**He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."**

**Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing **_**but **_**pockets- bunches of keys-**

_Like the key to my vault, _Harry thought, wondering exactly how hagrid had gotten his key in the first place. Had his parents given it to him? Had Dumbledore when he went to pick Harry up?

**slug pellets,**

Ron couldn't help wincing at the mention of slugs and Draco, who noticed, couldn't conceal his smirk, remembering how Weasley looked spewing slugs from his mouth.

**balls of string, mint humbugs, teabags… finally Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.**

"**Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.**

Many people face-palmed at that.

"**Knuts?"**

"**The little bronze ones."**

**Harry counted out five little bronze coins and the owl held out its leg so he could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then it flew off through the open window.**

**Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up and stretched.**

"**Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."**

**Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something which made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

"Oh no, not the happy balloon!" Fred and George cried dramatically. Sirius laughed. The jokes the twins made and the pranks they played often reminded him of the things he and the rest of the Marauders used to get up to at Hogwarts. Then again, Sirius reluctantly admitted, being like them wasn't always a good thing. Some of their pranks had been downright cruel.

_Like what I did to Snape…_

Still to this day, he remembered James' panicked and angry voice when he had told him: _"You did _what_?! Sirius, dear Godric, please tell me you're joking! You're crazy! You're gonna get Snape _killed! _Moony'll end up in Azkaban, but no, of course, you didn't think about that did you?!"_

No, he hadn't. And if it hadn't been for James…

Sirius risked a quick glance in Snape's direction. No, he didn't want to think about that. He hated the man but he hated wanted him killed by his hands.

"**Um- Hagrid?"**

"**Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

"**I haven't got any money- and you heard Uncle Vernon last night- he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

Sirius had to smile at that, trying to hold back a snort. Lily and James wouldn't have left there only son nothing! He had that small vault at Gringotts for if anything happened to them, and then the higher security vault down with all those other important pureblood families that Harry would inherit when he came of age. Not to mention that he would also inherit everything in the Black vault if anything were to happen to Sirius, as it was written in his will.

"**Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh with anything?"**

"**But if their house was destroyed-"**

Sirius winced at the mention of the destroyed house, the image of the house in shambles forever engraved into his mind.

Malfoy snorted contempasly at Harry. "Their _house? _Why would they keep their money in their _house, _Potter?"

Harry flushed. "Shut up, Malfoy," was the only sort of retort he could come up with. Truthfully, he couldn't remember why he had thought that back then. Why did everything his eleven year old self said now seem stupid? But then he smirked when he remembered what other person was introduced in this chapter if the title had anything to say about it.

"**They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy!**

Harry gave the book a dark look. He hated it when people called him boy—it was what his uncle would always call him for as long as he could remember. The Dursleys never said his name; they acted as if it were some horrid curse word, like how everyone was scared of saying Voldemort.

**Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizard's bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold- an' I won' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."**

"**Wizards have **_**banks?**_**"**

"Not _banks. _Just 'bank', non-plural." Hermione pointed out needlessly.

Ron rolled his eyes. "Know-it-all," he whispered to no one in particular, low enough so that Hermione didn't here, though he didn't say it like an insult.

"**Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."**

**Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding.**

"_**Goblins?"**_

Ron shuddered. "They're creepy."

"They aren't that bad," Bill pointed out. Everyone stared at him incredulously. "I mean, when you work with them for a few years you start to get used to them," he amended.

"**Yeah- so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that.**

"Well, Voldemort sure was mad enough," Harry commented. Almost everyone flinched.

"What do you mean?" Remus asked.

"You'll see." Remus didn't seem to be very satisfied by this answer, but he let it go for now. Percy, Umbridge, and Fudge were glaring at him while Madam Bones was looking curious.

_You-Know-Who robs Gringotts(?) _she jotted down on her piece of parchment, biting her lip and trying to figure out what he had possibly meant. She hadn't been a Ravenclaw for nothing, after all.

**Never mess with goblins Harry."**

"**Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe- 'cept maybe Hogwarts.**

Harry sighed. Despite the fact that Hogwarts had always felt safe, the truth was that it wasn't as safe as everyone thought it to be. Voldemort had managed to get inside twice (if you counted that Tom Riddle diary-memory-thing as Voldemort). A murderer had gotten inside as well as a disguised Death Eater, a troll, a basilisk, and many other things that had threatened the life of Harry and his friends at least once.

**As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business."**

Umbridge and Fudge looked at Dumbledore curiously, wondering what the oaf needed to do for him. Hopefully it was something incriminating that the Ministercould use as an excuse to fire both Dumbledore _and _Hagrid. Lucius Malfoy had recommended long ago to Fudge that he fire Hagrid after his son had gotten greatly injured during one of his classes.

**Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you- getting' things from Gringotts- knows he can trust me, see.**

"Yeah, just don't give him any alcohol," Ron said, chuckling as he remembered how Hagrid spilled all his secrets when he was drunk. Hermione slapped the back of Ron's head for saying that after she saw Umbridge listening and quickly scribbling away, no doubt already forming a bad opinion of Hagrid.

**Got everythin'? Come on, then."**

Hermione was leaning forward in her seat, excited at the prospect of seeing Harry's reaction to Diagon Alley. She remembered wanting to look everywhere at once at the wonderous sight, but it had been simply impossible.

**Harry followed Hagrid out on to the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

"**How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat. **

"**Flew," said Hagrid.**

Sirius smiled excitedly, wondering if Hagrid had used his motorbike, while other people looked astounded at the prospect of Hagrid flying.

"_**Flew?" **_

"**Yeah- but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

Umbridge visibly deflated at this statement. She had been hoping that the halfbreed would use magic so that he would get arrested.

**They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

"**Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter-er-speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

"HA!" Umbridge shouted triumphantly. "That halfbreed used magic when he wasn't supposed to; his wand was _snapped, _that is against Ministry regulations!"

Although he didn't remember doing it, Harry was suddenly standing up and shouting. "ONLY BECAUSE HE WAS EXPELLED FOR SOMETHING HE NEVER EVEN DID! HE WAS FALSLY ACCUSED; HE DIDN'T OPEN THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, THAT WAS VOLDE—"

"ENOUGH!" Apparently Umbridge had finally had enough, because she had shouted over the Great Hall louder than ever before, her voice holding a strict, authoritive tone. "DETENTION MISTER POTTER!" she exclaimed with a deadly look that then turned into a vindictive smirk.

"WHAT?!" Harry exclaimed, clenching his left fist tightly that had the scars from the Blood Quill inscribed on the back, his skin still red and raw from the last session using it.

Hermione and Ron (the only other ones who knew about the Blood Quill) were looking worriedly at Harry, while others were wondering what such a big deal about a simple detention was.

"**Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat and they sped off towards land.**

Umbridge glowered. That halfbreed _would _end up in Azkaban, along with that filthy murderer, Sirius Black; she would make sure of it.

"**Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.**

"**Spells- enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "they say there's dragons gaurdin' the high security vaults.**

Charlie's eyes widened, not having heard about this fact until now. His eyes blazed in anger. The high security vaults were underground! That was no place for dragon to live; that was mistreatment! He immediately turned on Bill who worked at Gringotts as a curse breaker, and was likely to know if this was true or not. "Bill?!" he questioned loudly.

Bill raised his hands in surrender, scooting so far back that he bumped into his mother. "I swear to Merlin, I don't know!" he lied desperately. Of course, he knew that there actually _were _dragons guarding a few of the vaults, but he wasn't about to tell Charlie that because he would no doubt kill him, and he rather liked living, thank you very much. He prayed to whatever God that was listening that the Gringotts dragons don't appear in any of these books.

"You better hope not," Charlie muttered in response, continuing to glare.

**And then yeh gotta find yer way- Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

Dumbledore went over Hagrid's words for a few seconds. What he said had been true. Gringotts was one of the safest places; it would be almost impossible to steal something from there. Could it be possible that Tom had hid one of his Horcruxes there, maybe in the vault of a trusted servant? After all, he had entrusted Lucius Malfoy with the diary.

**Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the **_**Daily Prophet.**_

"The _Daily Rubbish, _more like," Sirius muttered darkly, scowling. The _prophet _used to be a great resource to the news during the First war to know what was going on out in the world, but now it was completely useless.

**Harry had learnt from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this,**

Sirius shook his head and tutted in mock-disappointment. "You shouldn't listen to anything that fat walrus taught you."

Harry snorted. "Don't worry, I don't anymore."

**but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.**

Sirius chuckled. "If you were James you would have just come right out and asked. He had the worst curiousity I had ever seen; he could never, _ever _keep his mouth shut." Ron snorted while Hermione cracked a smile, knowing that Sirius' words were about to be proven untrue; Harry was like his father in that aspect. Both of them had been surprised when he hadn't just come right out and ask what he wanted to know.

"**Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.**

Sirius snorted. "Ain't that the truth." Why was it he didn't find it all that surprising that the Ministry of magic were apparently messing things up even _before _Voldemort had returned to power?

Everyone made noises of agreement as Sirius ignored Percy, Umbridge, and Fudge, who were all glaring heatedly at him for his words.

"**There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.**

Hermione and Ron laughed at those last words: _before he could stop himself. _Harry just huffed at them while Sirius snorted with amusement. "Never mind," he said in response to his previous words.

"'**Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts,**

Dumbledore sighed heavily. Though that was one of the reasons he would never run for Minister, it wasn't the main one. He didn't want to risk the chance of succumbing to the temptation of power.

Luna looked up at the headmaster questioningly, having a curious feeling that leaving Hogwarts wasn't the only reason he didn't want to be Minister. She didn't know why she thought this; it was just a gut feeling. She sometimes just _knew _things. Daddy had told her it was like a sixth sense; something she had inherited from her mother.

**so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if there ever was one.**

Fudge looked highly offended. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh while Umbridge scribbled something else down on her parchment, looking furious. Percy shook his head to himself, looking disgusted. This only went to show that Harry Potter was not to be trusted if he hung out around people who would speak of the Minister in such a way.

**So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

Fudge blushed while everyone else snorted. What kind of Minister were you if you couldn't even make your own decisions?

Malfoy rolled his eyes. They should have a better Minister, maybe like his father; no doubt he would ban all the mudbloods from Hogwarts and the Dark Lord would have taken over by now; that's what he wanted as a proud Slytherin and the son of Lucius Malfoy.

A small voice in the back of his head whispered that he didn't want that, that he didn't want to bow down to someone like some slave, but he smothered the annoying little voice, telling it to shut up.

"**But what does a Ministry of Magic **_**do?"**_

Fred snorted. "Nothing," he stated blandly.

Fudge looked outraged and Umbridge bellowed, "THAT IS A LIE!" Harry rolled his eyes at this familiar line coming out of her mouth. _I must not tell lies._

"Oh yeah? Then what do you do? Sit around on your arses and watch as the world goes to Hell?"

"George Fabian Weasley!" Mrs. Weasley yelled in outrage just as Umbridge yelled, "Detention, Mister Weasley!" George just rolled his eyes but Harry, Hermione, and Ron shared a horrified three-way glance, the words on Harry's hand seeming to stand out even more against the contrast of his pale skin.

"**Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

"**Why?"**

Everyone gave Harry incredulous looks. "Are you really that _stupid _Potter?" Snape snarled. Sirius hglared at his school rival and suddenly the window behind the Potion Master shattered. Everyone started and stared back and forth between the window, Snape, and Sirius.

Sirius rubbed the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly as he stared at the broken glass. "Oops, my bad," he commented. Harry, Remus, and Tonks snorted while most of the others either looked amused or disapproving.

Chuckling, Dumbledore brought out his wand from the pocket of his robes and flicked it in the direction of the broken pieces of glass on the ground. With a light twinkling sound, sort of like wind chimes, the glass few up back to the window and repaired itself so it was as good as new.

"_**Why?**_** Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems.**

"Or we would be hunted down and executed because of our magic just like the Witch Trials," Luna said, and everyone jumped, startled that she had said something that wasn't the occasional odd comment or two.

"What Witch Trials, Luna?" Neville asked when no one spoke to her. It seemed quite rude in his opinion; the girl was a bit odd, so what? It didn't mean everyone should act like she didn't exist; he understood what it was like being ignored, and he knew how much that could hurt someone's feelings. "How come I've never heard of it?"

"Oh, that's because it didn't happen near here," she began, not sounding fazed in the slightest that someone was talking to her, though in reality she was. "It happened in America, and Professor Binns doesn't really get into the culture and history of witchcraft in _America_, only Britain. It was a period of time in the late seventeenth century when magic was revealed so a society of Witch Hunters was formed. If someone thought you were a witch, then you would be hung or burned, or pressed to death." Through this speech Luna's voice had grown sadder and had a hard edge to it that no one had ever heard before. By the time she was done speaking, everyone looked outraged and disgusted.

**Nah, we're best left alone."**

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbour wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper and they clambered up the stone steps on to the street.**

**Passers-by stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"**

McGonagall looked horrified at Hagrid's lack of subtly. Did he _want _them to become exposed?

Arthur was nodding in agreement to Hagrid's words. It was true; the things Muggles came up with was amazing; awe-inspiring. And without even using magic!

"**Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are **_**dragons **_**at Gringotts?"**

Charlie glared at Bill who determinedly didn't meet his gaze. _Merlin, if he finds out about the dragons, he's going to be _really _angry._

"**Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."**

A lot of peoples' eyes widened. The Golden Trio shared a panicked glance which McGonagall caught. She frowned when she remembered the Malfoy boy running to her a few years ago about Hagrid having a dragon, and she had accused him of lying. Surely it couldn't be true… She knew Hagrid always wanted a dragon, but he would never actually go so far as to actually get one…

Neville was also wondering about the dragon, since in first year he had overheard Malfoy going on about it. Was it actually true?

"**You'd **_**like**_** one?"**

Harry made a face as he remembered the Hungarian Horntail from the First Task last year. That thing was completely vicious—why Hagrid wanted a dragon he would never understand.

"**Wanted one ever since I was a kid- here we go."**

**They had reached their station. There was a train to London in a few minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand 'Muggle money',**

"It is very difficult," Mr. Weasley stated and Hermione giggled as she remembered trying to explain Muggle money to him at the Quidditch World Cup, but it had been to no avail and had eventually led to Mr. Weasley throwing the bucks down in frustration exclaiming that he couldn't do it, that it was just too hard to understand.

"I actually find Muggle money to be simpler than ours," Sirius said, and McGonagall raised an eyebrow at him.

"And since when have you used Muggle money?" she asked.

A wide grin spread across his face. "Well, you see, it has to do with me and James, and this Muggle nightclub—"

McGonagall held up a hand to silence him. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

**as he called it, gave the notes to Harry so he could buy their tickets.**

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.**

"Hagrid can knit?" Fred asked randomly. George gave him a look, and Fred merely shrugged in response. "What? I was just curious."

"**Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches.**

**Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.**

"**Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."**

**Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before and read:**

_**HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY**_

**Uniform**

Tonks made a face as she remembered her uniform. It wasn't that she hadn't liked it, she just would have liked it better if they could wear whatever they wanted.

_**First year students will require:**_

_**Three sets plain work robes (black)**_

_**One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**_

Ginny rolled her eyes. "I don't get why we even need those. The only time we wear them is at the end of year feast."

_**One pair protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**_

_**One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)**_

"Why silver? Why is everything so specific?" Ron asked right before Hermione gave him an annoyed glance and smacked him lightly upside his head.

"Stop interrupting," she chastised.

_**Please note that all pupils' clothing should carry name tags**_

**Set Books**

_**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**_

**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) **_**by Miranda Goshawk**_

**A History of Magic **_**by Bathilda Bagshot**_

Hermione grinned. Bathilda Bagshot was one of her favorite authors.

Dumbledore smiled, wondering how his old friend Bathilda was doing after living in Godric's Hallow all these years. He hadn't seen her in quite a while.

**Magical Theory **_**by Adalbert Waffling**_

**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration **_**by Emeric Switch**_

**One Magical Herbs and Fungi **_**by Phyllida Spore**_

**Magical Drafts and Potions **_**by Arsenius Jigger**_

**Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them **_**by Newt Scamander**_

Luna recognized the last name Scamander. She was pretty positive that there was a boy with that surname in her house two years above her.

**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection **_**by Quentin Trimble**_

**Other Equipment**

_**1 wand**_

Harry swore quietly. Just another thing to look forward to—everyone finding out his wand had the same core as Voldemort. Umbridge would no doubt find a way to use that against him, and would have a field day doing it.

_**1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)**_

Ron slumped in his seat at the mention of cauldrons. Just another reminder that he was practically failing in Potions and it was only the beginning of the year. No doubt he would get everything wrong on the OWL.

_**1 set glass or crystal phials**_

_**1 telescope**_

Ginny made a face. She hated astronomy; she couldn't wait until after her OWL year when she would be able to drop it.

_**1 set brass scales**_

_**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat**_

Sirius made a face.

_**OR a toad**_

Neville thought fondly of Trevor and how he was always getting lost. Neville had wanted a cat or an owl at first, but Trevor really had grown on him.

_**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**_

Harry smirked when Malfoy glared at him, as did McGonagall when Snape glared at her.

Sirius shook his head, thinking that rule was stupid. The professors might think it wasn't, but they hadn't had to listen to James' constant complaining for the whole first year had they?

"**Can we find all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.**

"**If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.**

**Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground**

Harry's lips twitched into an almost smile when he remembered that Mr. Weasley had done the same thing on the way to his hearing, but he had been too nervous to find it particularly amusing then.

**and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.**

"**I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic,"**

Many people nodded in agreement. Draco agreed also and was horrified that he agreed with that oaf.

**he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator which led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops**

Hermione's eyes lit up and Ron rolled his eyes at her.

**and music stores, hamburger bars and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand.**

Draco rolled his eyes and refrained on commenting about Potter's stupidity.

**This was just an ordinary street full or ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them?** **Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks?** **Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up?**

The twins rolled their eyes.

"No Harry, because you see…"

"…in order for them to do that…"

"…they would actually have to have…"

"…an imagination."

Both of them shuddered at the thought of someone having no imagination. How despicable!

**If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humour,**

"So true," Fred mumbled, thinking in horror about the 'checking for letter bombs' joke Harry's uncle had made.

**he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.**

Hermione smiled, thinking of when she had first met Hagrid; she had felt that way too.

Luna tilted her head to the side, absorbed in her thoughts Hagrid was quite a joke in Ravenclaw House but after reading about him from Harry's point of view, she thought he actually seemed really nice.

"**This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all.**

"They can't," Hermione explained needlessly. "It's just like the charm placed over Hogwarts and other wizarding schools. Muggles can't see it."

**In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it.**

**Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.**

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat who looked like a gummy walnut **

Sirius burst out laughing at that description of the barman. "A gummy walnut? Really Harry?" Wiping tears of laughter from his eyes, Sirius shook his head fondly. Merlin, his godson had the best descriptions.

**The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the barman reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"**

"**Can't Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making his knees buckle.**

Ron looked exasperated. "Hagrid does seem to under-estimate his own strength."

"**Good Lord," said the barman, peering at Harry, "is this- can this be-?"**

Harry groaned and proceeded to repeatedly bang his head on the table. And so it began; his first taste of fame.

Both Snape and Draco frowned. Before these books both of them had been set in their beliefs that Potter loved his fame. Now they were starting to doubt this, though they would never willingly admit this.

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still silent.**

Some people were slightly surprised by this, as it had never happened before. Then again, if someone were to get the Leaky Cauldron to go completely silent, who else could it be but Harry Potter, the _Boy Who Lived?_

"**Bless my soul," whispered the old barman. "Harry Potter… what an honour."**

"Not really," Harry muttered, looking annoyed. Honestly, what had he done to make it such an 'honor' to meet him? He had gotten rid of Voldemort for a few years, so what? It was because of his mother's protection, not because of some 'great power' that he had.

Seeing Harry's discomfort, Sirius placed a comforting hand on his shoulder which earned him a small, grateful smile from said boy.

Snape groaned as he read about Potter's fame. No doubt this was when he began to get a big head just like his father.

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed towards Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.**

Harry sighed, hating this reaction he got from people. They were grateful for him for something he didn't really do; not really. And now that Voldemort was back he had all this pressure on his shoulders; everyone who believed his story expected him to be the one to finally defeat Voldemort, but he had no idea how to do that; he _couldn't._

"**Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back."**

"Welcome back? Welcome back where?" Tonks wondered out loud.

"The Wizard World, perhaps?" Remus suggested thoughtfully.

**Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffin on it without realising it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.**

**Then there was a great scraping of chairs and next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

Harry repressed a groan hearing about it. Merlin, that had been annoying, and at the time, way too overwhelming for his eleven-year-old self.

"**Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

"**So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."**

Ron raised his eyebrows in questioning. Proud of what? Of meeting him? That didn't make sense.

"**Always wanted to shake your hand- I'm all of a flutter."**

Many people either snorted or rolled their eyes.

"**Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you. Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

When usually Sirius would have grinned at the mention of his fellow Order member, now he frowned, still upset about Dedalus celebrating when Lily and James died.

"**I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop!"**

McGonagall mentally groaned at this, knowing Dedalus would get a bit over-excited at this information.

"**He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!"**

Sirius let out a chuckle as Harry groaned again. He shot his godfather an aggravated look as if to say, _It's not funny!_

**Harry shook hands again and again- Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

Ron sighed enviously at all the fame and attention his best mate got for something he couldn't even remember. He knew that Harry didn't like his fame, but Ron couldn't help being jealous of Harry who was the Boy Who Lived, while he was just another Weasley.

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

Hermione, Ron, Harry, McGonagall, and Snape's faces instantly darkened. Dumbledore's eyes lost their twinkle and Harry's eyes were narrowed, leaving many people to wonder why the mood had suddenly become so somber.

"**Professor Quirrell!"**

The atmosphere darkened even more, and Neville, the twins, and Draco looked very confused as to why the Golden Trio and the professors seemed to hate Quirrell so much. I mean, sure, he was a really bad teacher, but it wasn't like he was some sort of Dark Wizard, although the looks the book was getting right now suggested otherwise.

**said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

"Yeah, the worst one," Harry mumbled loud enough for only those close enough to hear him and Remus since he could hear better because he was a werewolf. Harry thought about his statement for a second before amending it by adding, "Besides Umbridge."

Sirius and Remus looked at Harry in surprise. How could his Quirrell fellow be that bad that he was one of the worst teachers, especially when _Snape _was one of those teachers?

"**P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand,**

Many of the students groaned, remembering just how annoying his stuttering was, while Harry resisted the urge to wipe his hand on his robes.

But wait a second—Quirrell had shook his hand; his skin had touched Harry's own skin. According to Dumbledore Voldemort couldn't do that because of his mother's protection—had that meant that Quirrell hadn't had Voldemort on the back of his head then, or was there some other reason?

**"c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."**

_Yeah, so you could hand me over to Voldemort, _Harry thought darkly, scowling.

"**What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

Dumbledore sighed sadly, thinking about how Quirrell gave into Voldemort because he was afraid. He had seemed like a perfectly fine fellow when he had employed him. But fear was a powerful emotion and many peoples greatest weakness was their fear; Tom had used that to his advantage to get people to join him, not out of loyalty, but out of fear.

"**D-defence Against the D-D-Dark Arts,"**

Harry frowned, remembering how useless that class had been with Quirrell teaching it, and later, Lockheart. He hadn't gotten any actual education in the subject until his third year when Professor Lupin had taught it.

**muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it.**

Lupin frowned at this. This man was going to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? He didn't seem the type who would be teaching that subject; he most likely wouldn't be an adacate teacher, and if Remus remembered correctly, the students had said that they hadn't got much education on the subject before their third year.

There was just something off with this Quirrell bloke, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Remus didn't know much about his previous predecessors, though he did know that one had died on the job and that the position was supposedly jinxed.

"**N-Not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?"**

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Just because he defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named when he was only a baby doesn't mean he doesn't need DADA lessons!" People gave her odd looks when her words had the opposite effect than intended. She frowned. "That didn't come out the way I meant it to."

Ginny didn't say anything about it, but she was concerned for the Trio about Quirrell. She hadn't been at Hogwarts during her brother's first year but she could tell by their reactions that Quirrell was bad news.

**He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself."**

The twins snickered when they remembered that they used to tell Quirrell that he should put garlic in his turban because it would keep away the vampires.

**He looked terrified at the very thought.**

Luna frowned. He didn't seem like a very efficient teacher; she was glad that she hadn't been at Hogwarts that year so she would have had to take his classes.

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself.**

Sirius felt the urge to growl at the book in the headmaster's hands. He was awed at how famous his godson was, but the way they treated him—it was as if he was an object, not a real, live person.

**It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.**

"**Must get on- lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."**

Harry would never forget how grateful he had felt toward Hagrid at that moment for helping him escape from that mass of people. Merlin, how he hated crowds; they made him feel claustrophobic.

**Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time**

"How much you want to bet she never washed that hand again," Fred whispered to his twin, who snorted. Knowing it was probably true, George did the smart thing and didn't take his brother's bet.

**and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds.**

**Hagrid grinned at Harry.**

"**Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous.**

Harry rolled his eyes fondly. That had been more than a little shocking; Hagrid could have given him a little bit more of a warning.

**Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh- mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

"Ever since he found Voldemort," Harry muttered, his voice barely a whisper so this time it was low enough so not even Remus could hear. But Lupin knew that something was off about Quirrell and decided to listen closely to the Trio's comments to see if he could figure out the mystery surrounding the DADA professor of two years ago.

"**Is he always that nervous?"**

The Golden Trio shared a knowing look while Draco absentmindedly wondered if the rumor about the vampire was true. Goyle had once told him it wasn't and that his father had told him it had something to do with the Dark Lord, but he had been sure that Goyle was just making up stories to try and seem impressive.

"**Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind.**

The Golden Trio snorted loudly and Madam Bones looked at them suspiciously. And, for some reason when Hagrid had called Quirrell brilliant (what a lie that was) Harry was reminded of something Ollivander had said to him once, something that was coming up very soon in the book.

"_He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things. Terrible, yes—but great." _Harry wasn't sure why he was suddenly reminded of those rather eerie words, but he was.

**He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience…**

_Yeah, some first-hand experience with Voldemort, _Harry thought darkly. He had stopped Voldemort from using the Sorcerer's Stone to come back but now he just didn't see the point if it was only for him to come back at full power three years later.

**They say he met vampires in the Black Forest and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag-**

Bill wrinkled his noise, remembering the few hags that sometimes came to Gringotts. "I hate hags."

"Then you don't want to meet my mother, trust me," Sirius commented, and Harry couldn't hold back a snort, remembering Mrs. Black's portrait and how she had in fact looked much like a hag.

**never been the same since. Scared of the students,**

"He's scared of the _students?" _Molly asked disbelievingly. The twins snickered at this while their mother eyed them suspiciously.

Umbridge was currently scowling at the book. It was making Quirrell sound like a coward, but in her opinion he was one of the best teachers. He was the only DADA professor that had not taught his students many defensive spells.

**scared of his own subject-**

Harry held back a growl. He hated Quirrell. He was exactly the type of person Harry hated; the type who was too weak to stand up for themselves, the kind who let fear rule their lives.

**now, where's me umbrella?"**

Umbridge seethed. She didn't know how that disgusting half giant was performing magic using an umbrella, but she knew that it should be confiscated and that he should be expelled, and not just because his wand was snapped many years ago, but also because he was a filthy half breed, just like that disgusting werewolf.

_**Vampires? Hags?**_** Harry's head was swimming.**

"How does your head 'swim'?" Ron wondered.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's an expression, Ronald."

Ron scowled at her obnoxious tone and because she called him by his full name, as she always did when she was exasperated. Though he couldn't deny that it actually sounded kind of cute when _she_ said it…

**Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the dustbin.**

Sirius knew that Hagrid was counting what bricks to tap in order to get into Diagon Alley, but he realized with a shock that he didn't remember! Hadn't it been three-something? Or was it four? Sirius cursed his bad memory, all the fault of the dementors and Azkaban.

"**Three up…two across…" he muttered.**

"Ha! I knew it had something to do with a three!" Sirius exclaimed loudly. Everyone gave him odd looks which he seemed oblivious to as he stared at the book with a smug look on his face.

**"Right, stand back, Harry."**

**He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.**

**The brick he had touched quivered- it wriggled- in the middle a small hole appeared- it grew wider and wider- a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight.**

Harry felt the slight urge to grin as he remembered what an amazing sight that had been the first time he saw that; the first time that he had entered the world of magic where he belonged.

"**Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

"That's the chapter title!" Ron exclaimed. Everyone gave him a look as if to say 'no, really?'

**He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.**

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. **_**Cauldrons- All Sizes- Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver- Self-Stirring- **_

Sirius grimaced as he remembered that incident in Slughorn's class one day in third year when he was using a self-stirring cauldron because he thought they sounded cool at the time. The potion had gotten _everywhere._

_**Collapsible **_**said a sign hanging over them.**

"**Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."**

Ron couldn't help the small surge of jealousy he felt at the mention of Harry's fortune he had at Gringotts. Then he immediately felt guilty about it because he knew his best mate hadn't asked for any of this.

**Harry wished he had about eight more eyes.**

George snickered when he thought about what Harry would look like with eight eyes but then he gasped, that image giving him a grand idea for a new product for the joke shop. He turned and whispered it to Fred, who immediately became interested.

McGonagall watched the Weasley twins whispering excitedly with their heads together and instantly became wary. That was never good; they were just like another generation of the Marauders, maybe even worse.

**He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once:**

Hermione smiled. That was what she had done. The sight had been so awe-inspiring and she had wanted to look at everything.

**the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad…"**

Molly blushed and Bill was sitting next to her on her left, noticed. He laughed slightly. "Was that you, Mum?" This only made her flush a deeper shade of red. The Weasley clan were either laughing or smiling amusedly. But Molly was thinking about what she had said; the prices sure were getting high and she hated being so poor that she couldn't afford things, especially when her children were involved. She knew that their lack of money bothered them no matter how much they tried to hide it.

**A low, soft hooting noise came from a dark shop with a sign saying **_**Eeylops Owl Emporium- Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy.**_

Harry smiled a bit, thinking fondly of Hedwig. That owl had been his first real birthday present, and the best one at that.

**Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand- fastest ever-"**

Harry smiled sadly remembering his first broomstick—but now he had an even better one from his godfather.

Snape glared at McGonagall for getting Potter that broomstick while Malfoy tried not to look bitter. Meanwhile Remus was feeling guilty that it was his fault Harry's broom got smashed by the Whomping Willow.

**There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments that Harry had never seen before,**

"What were they?" Neville asked curiously.

Harry shugged; he didn't really remember what they had looked like all that much. "I don't know. Sneakoscopes, maybe?"

**windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon…**

"**Gringotts," said Hagrid.**

**They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was-**

"**Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps towards him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

Bill nodded, knowing what was going to be read next. He had memorized it long ago since he visited Gringotts a lot when he came back down from Egypt.

_**Enter stranger, but take heed**_

_**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**_

_**For those who take, but do not earn,**_

_**Must pay most dearly in their turn,**_

_**So if you seek beneath our floors**_

_**A treasure that was never yours,**_

_**Thief, you have been warned, beware**_

_**Of finding more than treasure there.**_

'**Like I said, yeh`d be mad to try an` rob it," said Hagrid.**

"Yeah, whoever tries to rob Gringotts is insane," Ron said, not knowing the irony of his words.

But J.S.P. who was watching over them in the future, couldn't help but snort at his uncle's words. If only they knew…

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.**

"**Morning," said Hagrid to a free Goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."**

"**You have his key, sir?"**

Remus' brow furrowed in thought. Hagrid must have Harry's key if he took him to Gringotts, but how had he got it? Had Dumbledore given it to him?

"**Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid-and he started emptying his pockets on to the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog biscuits**

Ron winced in sympathy. No doubt those were biscuits for Fang; they must be disgusting.

**over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose.**

Bill bit his lip, knowing that goblins had a particular dislike of wizards that went back ages. And the purebloods weren't helping matters by acting like they were just dirt under their shoes, just like how they treated house elves.

**Harry watched the goblin on the right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

"**Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.**

**The goblin looked at it closely.**

"**That seems to be in order."**

"**An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest.**

Umbridge scowled. Filthy cretin; how that filthy have breed was even allowed to live was beyond her. She was sick of hearing about this; she only wanted to get to the parts that got Potter in trouble.

**"It's about the you-know-what in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

Sirius leaned forward, always the curious one, wanting to know what this mysterious you-know-what was.

McGonagall sighed, knowing that by Hagrid making it clear he wasn't supposed to know, would only make Potter want to find out all the more. He would investigate and keep looking for clues until he figured it out. It was a combination of Lily's curiosity and James' tendency to never give up until he figured out the answer.

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

"**Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid. "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

**Griphook was yet another goblin.**

Draco was itching to make a comment about potter's stupidity but under supervision of the professors he decided to keep his mouth shut.

**Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog-biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook towards one of the doors leading off the hall.**

"**What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.**

Ron snorted while hermione's lips twitched upwards, both of them knowing he was going to ask.

Meanwhile, Sirius was jumping up and down in his seat in anticipation, looking like a little kid who needed to use the bathroom. "Yeah, what is it, what is it?!"

Normally in this type of situation Remus would tell his friend off for being so immature and then tell him to be quiet, but he was just so happy that some life seemed to have come back into Sirius and he actually seemed cheerful for once instead being depressed and brooding up in his room at Grimmauld Place. Harry seemed happy about this too, Remus noticed, and was happy to spend time with his godfather. This also made Remus happy because he had noticed that Harry had been extra broody this summer as well.

"**Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business.**

Most of the students were wondering what it was, along with some of the adults. The golden trio shared a secret look which Sirius caught.

"You know what it is, don't you? Tell me, please, please, _please!" _he begged. But Harry merely gave him a mysterious smile, trying not to laugh at his godfather's childish actions.

Sirius made a noise of frustration when no one answered his question, slumping back in his seat.

Umbridge was wondering what the secret was. Could it possibly get Dumbledore in trouble, or one of the professors? She hoped so; Dumbledore needed to be knocked off his high horse as far as she was concerned and she would use any methods possible to get that to happen.

**Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

Dumbledore sighed. Even though he had been terribly disappointed when he learned Hagrid had told Harry about the stone, he couldn't be too disappointed. After all, he had wanted Harry to find the stone anyway; no matter how uncaring it sounded, he had needed the boy to stop Voldemort from returning that year.

**Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble,**

"Why marble?" Neville asked. Ron had been wondering the same thing but he wasn't about to ask Harry because he was still angry at him for telling him to shut up and overreacting when he had just been teasing him.

Harry shrugged in response to Neville's question. "Well, the whole place that I had seen so far had been made of marble, so I just thought…" He allowed his sentence to trail off.

**was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downwards and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them. They climbed in- Hagrid with some difficulty- and were off.**

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember,**

Bill smiled. "Don't bother, it's impossible."

**left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible.**

Bill blinked at how similar what Harry thought had been to what he just said.

**The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late-**

Charlie growled, glaring at Bill heatedly. _"It better not have been," _he said in a low dangerous voice.

Bill gulped and tried to look anywhere but at his brother.

**they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

"**I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

Hermione opened her mouth to answer the question, but Ron quickly snapped, "No one cares, Hermione."

Hermione closed her eyes and slumped in on herself, trying to conceal the hurt that his words had brought her.

Ginny looked at Hermione in sympathy at her brother's idiocy. She then glared at Ron. She knew he hadn't really meant his words to be hurtful, but honestly, he could be such a tactless arse sometimes.

"**Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it,"**

Hermione frowned at Hagrid's words, but was still to upset to actually say anything about it, which surprised a fair amount of people.

**said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."**

Bill smiled sympathetically. He knew the feeling, but after working for Gringotts for years now, he had gotten used to the high speed of the carts; one speed only.

**He did look very green and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees trembling.**

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

Harry shifted uncomfortably, not liking to be reminded of all the money he had, especially in front of other people like the Weasleys.

The Weasleys were also feeling awkward, at that moment super aware of their lack of money. And no matter how many times he tried to quench the feeling, he couldn't stop the white-hot feeling of jealousy that surged through him.

"**All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

Hearing about how shocked his godson was, Sirius almost laughed. That wasn't even a quarter of what was in the Potter family vault. He was going to make sure he was their when Harry opened that vault, just so he would be able to see the astonishment on his face.

**All Harry's- it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking.**

Most people—sans the obvious—growled or scowled at the reminder of the Dursleys and what they were like.

**How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep?**

Molly's mouth dropped open while at the Ravenclaew table, red sparks came out the tip of Ginny's wand. "They're treating him like some kind of dog, or an object!" She fingered her wand tightly, trying to concentrate on retraining herself from casting the worst bat-Bogey hex ever imaginable on them.

**And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.**

Harry once again looked uncomfortable, trying to avoid everyone's eyes. Sirius chuckled. He was more like Lily than he had thought.

**Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.**

The little bit he had taken hadn't even made a dent in the fortune, he remembered.

"**The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe fer yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"**

Bill shook his head. "Nope. One speed only."

"**One speed only," said Griphook.**

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed.**

Sirius became even more interested. It seemed as if they were going to where all the high-security vaults were located. What could Hagrid be picking up that was so important?

**The air became colder and colder as they hurtled around tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine and Harry leant over the side to try and see what was down at the dark bottom**

Remus made an exasperated noise while Hermione groaned Harry's name in disbelief. Meanwhile, Sirius had slapped his godson lightly on the back of the head.

"Do you have a death wish?! Never mind, don't answer that," he instantly backtracked.

**but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.**

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. _Thank you, Hagrid._

But where was he now?

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

Bill's interest, along with several others, piqued. Even Draco found himself curious against his own will. So it _was _a high security vault. What could be inside?

But unknown to others, Madam Bones had had a sudden realization. She remembered the incident nearly five years ago when a mysterious person had broken into the vault seven-hundred and thirteen. The strangest thing was, the vault had been empty when the person had broken in.

Amelia thought about the notes she had made about Harry Potter making a comment about You-Know-Who breaking into Gringotts. Her eyes widened.

_No… can it be…?_

"**Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.**

"**If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked in through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

Harry scowled, wishing Voldemort had been trapped in there when he tried to rob it.

"**How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.**

"**About once every ten years," said Griphook, with a rather nasty grin.**

A lot of the people in the room shuddered while Bill frowned. He knew the goblins were like this because most of the wizard population treated them as if they were beneath them, but no wonder wizards hated goblins so much when they acted like this.

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure,**

Harry snorted, remembering how disappointed he had been when it was just a small, round package.

**and he leant forward eagerly,**

So did everyone else. Even Umbridge and Fudge lent forward, hoping it was something that could incriminate Dumbledore somehow.

**expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least- but at first he thought it was empty. Then he noticed a grubby-looking package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor.**

Everyone (sans the people who knew) shared perplexed looks. What was the package. How was it so important?

"What?!" Sirius exclaimed, obviously expecting something more extravagant. "How can _that _be the great secret?"

"Size doesn't equal power," Remus itoned, thinking he had figured out what the package was if the title of the book had anything to do with it.

"You got that right," the twins agreed, shuddering as they remembered their sister's Bat Bogey hex.

**Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was,**

Everyone else did too.

**but knew better than to ask.**

Everyone either snorted or shot Harry various looks of disbelief.

Hermione frowned. Could the reason Harry was afraid to ask questions be because the Dursleys told him all his life not to? Did the Dursleys influence on Harry go deeper than any of them had ever thought?

He never asked questions (besides those times when his curiousity got the best of him), he never spoke up in classes despite the fact that Hermione knew him to be exceptionally brighter than he made out to be; he was always risking his life at only a second's notice, almost as if he didn't think his life to mean anything…

How far had his childhood influenced his thinking?

"**Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

**One wild cart-ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money.**

Harry glanced quickly at Malfoy, remembering where he went next and who he had met. Malfoy hadn't seemed to have realized yet, or maybe he just didn't care.

**He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life- more money than even Dudley had ever had.**

Everyone growled. Harry scowled. Why did they have to keep getting so angry over the stupid Dursleys? He didn't care, really!

"**Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding towards **_**Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions.**_

Draco's eyes widened and a curse slipped between his lips as he remembered his and Potter's first encounter. Ron and Harry shared a look, Ron remembering Harry telling him on the train ride about meeting Malfoy at the robe shop. Ron smirked, hoping he had said something that could get him in trouble.

Draco's stomach was suddenly filled with dread. He hadn't even spared a thought to the part he played in these books. He remembered all the times he had picked a fight with Potter and his friends, and all the times he had lied to Snape about it being Potter who always started most of them.

He gulped. His would _not _be good. All he could be grateful for was that his mother wasn't here. Then he'd _really _be dead.

**"Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts."**

"He left him alone?" Molly voiced, looking both outraged and concerned. He was only eleven! He could have gotten lost or have been kidnapped!

"He's obviously fine, Molly," Sirius pointed out exasperatedly, waving a hand in the direction of the fifteen-year-old sitting next to him.

This still didn't make her feel any better.

**He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madame Malkin's shop**

Draco gulped, trying to remember the exact words he had said in the shop, and whether they would get him in trouble. But he couldn't deny that he was sort of curious what the Golden Boy's first impression of him was. What had made Potter refuse being friends with him so fervently before he had even known anything about him?

**alone, feeling nervous.**

Molly frowned, clucking her tongue.

Sirius scowled. He wasn't sure why, but something about Molly Weasley just rubbed him the wrong way.

**Madame Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.**

"What's mauve?" Neville wondered.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't write the book did I?"

"No, but it's from your point of view," Ginny pointed out.

Harry scowled. "Look, yes, it's from my point of view, but I didn't ask for it to be! I didn't write the book and it's not as if I planned to have my whole entire life read out in storybook format! I don't bloody know what the stupid mauve is describing—"

"It's a shade of pink."

Everyone blinked when the dreamy blonde interrupted Harry's rant.

"Excuse me?" Hermione asked faintly.

"The color mauve," Luna explained. "It's a shade of pink."

When it became apparent that no one was going to say anything else, Dumbledore lowered his eyes back to the words on the page in front of him.

"**Hogwarts, dear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here- another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."**

Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

"Maybe you'll make a friend," Lupin said.

Ron snorted while Harry and Draco quickly shared a glance before looking away.

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face—**

Everyone turned around to look at Draco.

Draco crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. His face _wasn't_ pointed—much.

**was standing on a footstool while a second plump witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him, slipped a long robe over his head and began to pin it to the right length.**

"**Hello," said the boy. "Hogwarts too?"**

"_No, _Beauxbautons," Tonks said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.

Draco blushed slightly. Of course he had known Potter had to have been going to Hogwarts—he had just been trying to start a conversation.

"**Yes," said Harry.**

"**My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands,"**

"How can your mother be looking at wands?" Hermione asked with a know-it-all air about her. "I thought the wand chooses the wizard." Everyone looked in Malfoy's direction at that question, waiting for his answer.

Draco glared at her. "Actually Granger, my mother was looking for a wand for herself since hers wasn't working properly," he explained with a sneer in the girl's direction. "Not that that's any of your business."

Hermione flushed.

**said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice.**

Draco hmphed at that statement. "I do _not," _he drawled.

Harry raised an eyebrow at his tone of voice. "My point exactly."

The Slytherin gave him a perplexed look, not getting what he meant.

"**Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms.**

Molly was appalled at the way this boy spoke of his parents.

**I don't see why first years can't have their own.**

Draco scowled at this. It was completely unfair that Potter got his own broom and was allowed on the Quidditch team when none of the other first year's were.

**I think I'll bully father**

Snape raised an eyebrow at his godson's words, while Draco attempted to sink as low in his seat as possible.

**into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

This time it was both McGonagall and Dumbledore who raised their eyebrows. McGonagall looked angry while Dumbledore just looked amused.

Draco wished the headmaster could just hurry up and read through this part already. For once, he wasn't comfortable being the center of attention.

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.**

Many people laughed as Draco choked on air after hearing Harry's thoughts about him.

"I'm-That-You—I'm nothing like that fat, stupid Muggle!" he finally stuttered out, feeling highly insulted. He wasn't anything like Potter's pig of a cousin!

…Right?

"Actually, Malfoy, you were, and still are for that matter," Harry told him truthfully. "You sounded spoiled, not to mention a complete brat _and _a bully. After seeing how you treated other people, my suspicions were only confirmed."

Draco looked away, mostly because he didn't want to admit the truth that he _was _all those things Potter had just said. For some reason this bothered him, and not just because he was being compared to a filthy Muggle, although that was a large part of it. The feeling bothered him; he had never cared what people thought of him, so why were the things Potter thought making him uneasy now?

"**Have **_**you **_**got your own broom?" the boy went on.**

Harry thought that Malfoy would have made some snide remark about him getting the Nimbus in first year, but when he glanced over at the one occupant at the Slytherin table, Malfoy wasn't even looking at him, seeming to be lost in thought. Harry doubted the words he had said to the blonde had bothered him one bit, but still, he wondered.

"**No," said Harry.**

"**Play Quidditch at all?"**

"**No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

Fred and George gasped dramatically.

"The famous Harry Potter…"

"…youngest seeker in a century…"

"…not knowing what…"

"…Quidditch is?" they asked in disbelief.

Fred said, "Imagine Oliver's reaction if he heard that."

George snickered "He would probably have a heart attack!" Harry nodded in agreement.

"James is probably rolling in his grave," Sirius said in amusement, "his only son not knowing what Quidditch is… he'd be horrified."

Remus snorted, knowing what Sirius said was probably true. He had never met anyone who was as obsessed with Quidditch as James Potter.

"_**I **_**do- Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house,**

"And what do you think?" Luna asked.

Draco blinked. "I—_what_?"

"You said your father thinks it's a crime, but what do you think?"

"I—" Draco pondered this question for a few moments as if never having actually thought about his own opinion before. "I think it's a crime too," he said finally.

_What do you know, _Harry thought, _maybe the prat actually _does _have his own opinions._

**and I must say, I agree.**

Sirius rolled his eyes. Of course he agreed; that's what all purebloods were like. Agreeing with their parents about everything, being treated like nothing but puppets. Sirius was just happy that he, unlike his brother, saw sense.

**Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

"No one does, Malfoy," Harry felt the need to point out, just to humiliate his arch-enemy some more.

"**No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

"Don't feel stupid because of that brat," Sirius said, glaring at the boy who by blood was his cousin. By Merlin, how he hated the people he had for family.

"**Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they,**

"See, I knew that," Draco said in response to Potter's earlier comment.

**but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been-**

"My whole family has been in Slytherin, but I got in Gryffindor," Sirius pointed out. "Family doesn't mean anything."

"Mum was in Ravenclaw," Tonks pointed out.

Malfoy looked disgusted at the mere thought of being in any house but Slytherin.

**imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"**

Everyone glared at the blonde boy, Tonks' glare being the most furious. Her hair had turned a bright angry red. The phrase '_if looks could kill' _came to Draco's mind.

"And what exactly," she began in a strained voice, "is wrong with Hufflepuff?"

Draco gulped. "Nothing, ma'am."

Everyone looked at him in surprise, but then they supposed that the glare Tonks was giving Malfoy right now could have made even the bravest man cower.

"**Mmm," said Harry,**

"You agreed with that twat?!" Tonks exclaimed, shocked, taking no notice of the Slytherin glaring daggers at her for calling him a twat as if he wasn't sitting right there.

"I didn't mean it!" Harry said quickly. "I had no idea what he was talking about! I didn't know what to say so I just agreed."

**wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.**

Draco bit his lip. He had thought Potter had seemed pretty stupid when he first met him, but now that he knew Potter couldn't really answer him because he had no clue what he was talking about…

"**I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding towards the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice-creams**

"Well, that was nice of him," Molly said kindly, seeming to now have forgiven hagrid for leaving harry.

Draco bit his lip, now understanding part of the reason why Potter hadn't liked him. After hearing about how Hagrid had rescued him from those Muggle relatives of his, it made sense that Potter wouldn't take well to him insulting Hagrid. Even if what he said _had _been true.

**to show he couldn't come in.**

"**That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't.**

Some people chuckled while Draco rolled his eyes.

_Arrogant brat, _Snape thought, _just like his father._

**"He works at Hogwarts."**

"**Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

The combined glares of everyone in the room made Draco shift uncomfortably. Why couldn't this chapter just _end already_?!

"**He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.**

"Us too, Harry," Charlie said, glaring at Malfoy.

"**Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of **_**savage-**_

Everyone growled and Draco was really wishing the ground could come up and swallow him.

**lives in a hut in the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk,**

The trio shifted awkwardly, knowing this was true. But that didn't make Hagrid any less of a good person!

**tries magic and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

"I think he's brilliant," Sirius said coldly.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in amusement when he saw the next words on the page.

"**I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.**

Sirius blinked in surprise.

"Like godfather, like godson," Dumbledore said.

Sirius looked at his godson and smiled, who slowly smiled back. "What can I say, great minds think alike," he said.

Harry snorted along with Lupin while Snape sneered at the two of them.

"_**Do **_**you," said the boy, with a slight sneer.**

"No different than usual then," Ron muttered too low for malfoy to hear. Because really, he had yet to remember a time when Malfoy _wasn't _sneering.

**"Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"**

The mood instantly sobered.

Harry winced. Malfoy had definitely hit the nail on the head with that one.

"**They're dead,"**

Sirius and Remus flinched.

**said Harry shortly. He didn't feel like going into the matter with this boy.**

"**Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all.**

Draco looked down at his lap, practically _feeling _all the glares being sent his way. He actually _had _been sorry, but he was a Malfoy; he wasn't supposed to show any emotion, _ever._

**"But they were **_**our **_**kind, weren't they?"**

"And what's that matter?" Tonks snapped defensively.

"It matters because purebloods are _obviously _the best kind of wizard there is, if the others can even be considered wizards. Certainly not proper wizards," Draco said with an air of maddening superiority. "Why these bloodtraitors and mud-muggleborns," he quickly caught himself, "are even allowed at Hogwarts is beyond me. If Father had his way—"

"If _your father _had his way, all muggleborns, maybe even halfbloods, would be either imprisoned or dead," Harry said bluntly, emerald orbs burning with an inner anger as he stared down the other boy. "If _your father _had his way, the name 'Albus Dumbledore' would be a mere whisper, all Muggles would be dead, Voldemort would have complete control over Hogwarts and the Ministry; the whole entire Wizard World would be under his complete control—"

"THAT IS ENOUGH!"

Red sparks flew through the air as if to enforce Umbridge's yell. She stood standing up in her seat glaring down at Harry Potter, shaking in rage. "Lucius Malfoy," Umbridge began, "is one of the Ministry's best employees. He is not following You-Know-Who, and You-Know-Who is not back." She was once again speaking in that syrupy-sweet voice of hers that was beyond fake. "Now please settle down so we can continue reading."

Everyone had been silent through Harry's raving and Umbridge's shouting. No one spoke now either as Harry alternated between glaring at both Umbridge and Malfoy. Draco looked down at his lap, quietly contemplating Potter's words.

"**They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

Arthur nodded approvingly. That had been a good answer.

"**I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you?**

Ron groaned. "Not this again," he said, referring to what Malfoy had said about 'purebloods being superior' only about a minute ago.

**They're just not the **_**same**_**, they've never been brought up to know our ways.**

And that would be another reason, Draco thought. If at the time he had known he was talking to _Harry Potter _who was _brought up by Muggles _he probably wouldn't have said that. He could add that to the growing list of why Potter hadn't wanted to be his friend.

**Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine.**

This only made Draco even more humiliated since he said this, once again, to _Harry Potter _who _had never heard of Hogwarts _before then.

**I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"**

"Don't tell him, Harry," Sirius muttered, apparently forgetting that this was the past. "Actually, scratch that. _Do _tell him. I want to hear about the look on his face when he learns he just said all of that to the _famous Harry Potter._"

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy**

Hermione frowned. "That's rude."

"It was _Draco Malfoy, _Hermione," Harry stressed as though that explained everything.

**, hopped down from the footstool.**

"**Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose,"**

"Unfortunately."

**said the drawling boy.**

"My voice isn't _drawling!" _Malfoy once again tried to argue, but no one paid him any mind.

**Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice-cream Hagrid had bought him**

"Don't tell me what that brat said actually bothered you," Sirius said disbelievingly.

Harry just shrugged. Truthfully, at the time malfoy had said that, it had bothered him rather a lot. He hadn't known anything about the magic world then and malfoy had told him that those who didn't grow up knowing didn't deserve to go to Hogwarts. It had bothered him more than he cared to admit.

**(chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).**

Remus grinned. "James' favorite."

Harry smiled at that.

"**What's up?" said Hagrid.**

"**Nothing," Harry lied.**

Hermione sighed. "You shouldn't have lied. He could have explained things to you."

"I didn't want to bother him," was Harry's only reply, and Hermione frowned. Why did her friend seem to think he was a burden on everyone? Hagrid wouldn't have been bothered by just a few questions.

**They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed colour as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

"Only the most fantastical wonderful sport in the whole entire universes!" Sirius exclaimed.

Hermione stared at him. "You know that sentence made no sense right?"

He shrugged. "Those were James' words, not mine. That's what he said to Lily in first year when she asked what Quidditch was. Only there was a lot more arm-waving and enthusiasm."

"Oh yeah, I remember that," Remus remembered. "That was when we first started at Hogwarts and before Lily started hating him."

Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise at this. His mother had hated his father?

"**Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know- not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

"Don't make him feel worse!" Hermione said.

"**Don't make me feel worse," said Harry.**

Harry smiled at his girl best mate.

**He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madame Malkin's.**

"**-and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in-"**

Usually Draco would have felt satisfied that what he said had gotten under Potter's skin, and he did—but now he also felt something else but he wasn't quite sure what it was. The feeling was unfamiliar.

"**Yer not **_**from**_** a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh **_**were-**_

_I definitely wouldn't have said those things, _Draco thought. Not that he minded, he told himself, he hated Potter and all his stupid little friends.

**he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk-**

Draco smiled proudly. The Malfoys had the purest blood around besides the Blacks, but he had Black blood as well. The blood of two of the most dominant wizarding families ran through his veins.

And he was quite proud of that.

**you saw 'em in the Leaky Cauldron. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles-**

"Like Hermione!" Neville piped up. "She isn't the brightest witch of her age for nothing."

Hermione blushed, remembering how Professor Lupin had once said something quite like that. "Thanks, Neville."

Draco glared. It wasn't fair that that mudblood Granger was smarter than him. Each year he would come home and he would be yelled at by his father for a mudblood having higher marks than him.

**look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

"Darn toot'en," Sirius said. Remus gave him an odd look at his choice of words, but didn't say anything. He was plenty used to his mate's weirdness by now.

"**So what **_**is **_**Quidditch?"**

Sirius opened his mouth but Lupin silenced him with a glare.

"**It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like- like football in the Muggle world- everyone follows Quidditch- played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls- sorta hard to explain the rules."**

"It is not!" both Sirius and malfoy yelled indignantly. Then they glared at eachother for daring to say the same thing as the other. Others found the looks on their faces rather comical.

"**And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

"Only the best house, and the worst—" Malfoy quickly stopped speaking under the intensity of his cousin's glare.

Tonks seethed, glaring at Draco. It just made her so angry how people were always bashing her House. There was nothing wrong with Hufflepuff; they were some of the nicest people!

"**School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but-"**

"HAGRID!" Tonks exclaimed, looking outraged. The half-giant could thank his lucky stars that he wasn't here right now because if he was Tonks would have no doubt ripped his head off by now.

Remus chuckled. "Hagrid said that's what most people think, not what he thinks," he reassured.

"**I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily.**

"And what's wrong with that?!"

"Nothing! I swear! I just didn't know back then!"

"**Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin,"**

Draco looked sickened and highly offended. How could _anyone _possibly think that Hufflepuff was better than _Slytherin?_

**said Hagrid darkly.** "**There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin.**

Dumbledore frowned, disliking the prejudices that surrounded the Slytherin House. If only they could forgive and forget; they could be stronger if they were all united against the common enemy.

**You-Know-Who was one."**

Snape scowled at the fact that his house was defined as being evil just because of the Dark Lord.

"**Vol- sorry- You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"**

Dumbledore sighed, remembering what the little boy he knew had now become.

"**Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

**They bought Harry's school books at a shop called Flourish and Blotts**

The Weasley children shared slight smiles, remembering the fight their father had gotten in with Lucius Malfoy at that bookshop.

**where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps covered with silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all.**

Hermione sighed wistfully.

**Even Dudley, who never read anything,**

Now she looked appalled.

**would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from **_**Curses and Counter-Curses (Bewitch your Friends and Befuddle your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and much, much more!) **_**by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

"**I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

The twins sighed wistfully. "Too bad you can't."

Harry glanced at Sirius to see that he had gotten a glint in his eye that Harry wasn't sure he liked at all…

"**I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea,**

Ron laughed and not even Mr. Weasley could disapprove of hexing Harry's muggle relatives. They were a nasty bunch.

**but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances,"**

Harry glared at the Minister, remembering that one of those special circumstances had been if your life is in danger. But during his hearing, Fudge, of course, hadn't believed him. No one ever did.

**said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

**Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either**

"Why'd you want the gold one? Those things are way heavier."

Shrug. "I dunno; it looked cooler."

**("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients**

Harry frowned. He remembered how he was looking forward to Potions, that was, until he met Professor Snape. Now he loathed the subject.

**and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell,**

Some people wrinkled their nose remembering the smell while nearly everyone nodded or made some acknowledgement of agreement.

**a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages.**

Amelia nearly gagged, but she also was very impressed. Only on chapter five and the book had already shown that Potter had extraordinary observation skills.

**Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor, jars of herbs, dried roots and bright powders lined the walls, bundles of feathers, strings of fangs and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns**

Oddly enough, it was Harry and Draco who thought of the same thing at that moment.

_The dead unicorn lying on the forest floor, around it covered with shining, silvery blood… The hooded figure bent over and drinking from its neck…_

Both of them shivered.

**at twenty-one Galleons each and miniscule, glittery-black beetle eyes **

A smirking Hermione thought of that vile Skeeter woman. She had never resorted to blackmail before in her life, but God how she _hated _her.

**(five Knuts a scoop).**

**Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.**

"**Just yer wand left-**

Harry figeted remembering what happened at _Ollivander's_, making quite a few people look at him oddly.

**oh yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."**

Harry smiled thinking of his owl.

**Harry felt himself go red.**

"**You don't have to-"**

Everyone rolled their eyes while Molly cooed about how sweet he was. It was just typical-Harry behavior.

"**I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at-**

Everyone turned to Neville to see how he had taken what Hagrid said, expecting him to look sad or hurt, but he just laughed.

"It's true; I'm always losing Trevor everywhere, anyway."

**an' I don't like cats,**

"I agree, Hagrid," Sirius said solemnely but then snapped his mouth shut looking fearful as McGonagall turned her glare on him.

**they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl.**

_Hedwig._

**All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer post an' everythin'."**

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark= and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage which held a beautiful snow owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing.**

Those who knew Hedwig smiled. She truly was a magnificent owl; completely one-of-a-kind.

**He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

Malfoy laughed rudely, happy they had gotten past Potter's meeting with him so he could go back to making fun of Potter's past actions, while Harry glared at the book, angry at comparing himself to Quirrell.

"**Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys.**

Everyone looked solemn at that, knowing it was true.

**Just Ollivanders left now- only place fer wands,**

"No it's not," Hermione said.

"The only place in _Britain," _Ron clarified. "They aren't about to go way across the continent to get a wand are they?"

Silence followed Ron's remark, leaving him feeling very smug.

**Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

**A magic wand… this was what Harry had really been looking forward to.**

"I think everyone does," Amelia said softly.

Sirius nodded in agreement, remembering when he had got his own wand when he was eleven. He'd had to try at least fifty before he found one and Regulus had been beside himself with boredom as each wand he tried wasn't a match. Finally he had found one.

…But then the Ministry had snapped it when he went to Azkaban; he hadn't seen them do it but he figured that's what had been done to his, along with the rest of the prisoners'.

He fingered the wand inside his cloak pocket—yew, dragon heartstring. It had been his father's, Orion Black's, but it just wasn't the same. It didn't have that familiar, belonging feeling when he held it in his hand.

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read **_**Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. **_**A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.**

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single spindly chair which Hagrid sat on to wait.**

Ron was surprised the chair didn't break, along with many others.

**Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions which had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

All of the adults blinked, looking astonished. He could actually _sense _magic. That had to mean he was very powerful, more powerful than they had thought. Amelia jotted something down on her parchment. _Very powerful, indeed._

"**Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped.**

Bill laughed. "Yeah, he does have a habit of frightening people like that by sneaking up on them. Sometimes I have to wonder if he does it on purpose."

**Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.**

Everyone had to try to smother their laughter at that. Hagrid really should know better not to sit down on chairs like that, being the size that he was.

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

All of the students shivered. Ollivander really _was _that creepy.

Ginny looked at Luna. Ollivander reminded her of Luna in some ways; like how she seemed to look _through _you and not _at _you, and how she seemed to know things that she couldn't possibly know.

"**Hello," said Harry awkwardly.**

"**Ah, yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter."**

Sirius narrowed his eyes. That man just creeped him out.

**It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes.**

And that was the second time he had heard that.

**It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."**

The teachers and the remaining Marauders fondly thought of Lily. She had been one of the smartest witches they had ever met, and had had a particular knack for charms.

**Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.**

Ginny glanced briefly at Luna's eyes, which she also never seemed to blink. Yes, she supposed they were a bit creepy.

"**Your father, on the other hand,**

Sirius and Remus now switched their thoughts to James, remembering when they had all been measly little First Years. Had it really only been twenty five years ago? It seemed like an eternity…

**favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration.**

McGonagall smiled, her eyes actually misting over. James Potter had actually been one of her favorite students despite all his pranks and shenanigans.

**Well, I say your father favoured it- it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."**

**Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose.**

Harry grumbled something about personal space, causing his godfather to snort.

**Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.**

"**And that's where…"**

**Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.**

Harry flinched, suddenly overcome with memories and emotions. He remembered Voldemort; Voldemort taking a long, pale finger and touching his scar…

He shuddered violently, trying to block out the images from that night. Sirius eyed his godson with great concern, for he knew what his godson was trying to do. Many times, the horrors of Azkaban and of the Potters' death threatened to overwhelm him to, and he had to fight to keep the images at bay.

"**I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it,"**

Most people couldn't help but feel uneasy at this, even though they had most likely already known. Ollivander sold the wand that would someday kill and torure so many people, that would rip and tear families apart…

**he said softly. "Thirteen and a half inches. Yew.**

_With the feather from a phoenix, _Harry added silently, _one phoenix to be exact._

**Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands…**

Everyone who had been alive during the First War closed their eyes, their faces darkening. It had been actual chaos; pure destruction… anyone who got in _His _way ended up dead and the ones who tried to stay out of it just ended up collateral damage. Human life meant _nothing _to him… he was soulless, a monster in a former man's body…

**Well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do…"**

Harry picked at the hem of his sleeve, aware they were getting close to the part where Ollivander told him his wand had the same core as Voldemort's. The only people who knew were Sirius and Dumbledore. He might have told Ron and Hermione once but he couldn't be sure… No doubt Umbridge would use this to turn more people against him, the bitch.

**He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.**

"**Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again… Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

Sirius sympathized with Hagrid, both of them having had their wands snapped.

"**It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

**"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

"**Er- yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

"**But you don't **_**use **_**them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.**

The Golden trio looked at each other knowingly, snorting. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled beyond his spectacles.

"**Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

Umbridge's lips curled into a sneer. She looked like she was going to say something nasty, but instead opted for angrily scribbling away on her piece of parchment.

"**Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look.**

"Ollivander knows all," fred said in a spooky, dramatic voice.

**"Well, now- Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"**

"**Er- well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.**

"**Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head.**

"I've never understood why they have to do that," Ginny said.

"It's the length," Remus explained. "The type of wand chooses the wizard, but if you don't pick out the right length, then it will never work properly. Everything about your wand is unique."

Neville frowned at this, wondering if the reason why he was so horrid at magic was because he used his father's old wand.

**As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs,**

Harry and Draco once again found themselves thinking of the dead unicorn. It seemed any mention of unicorns was going to do that.

**phoenix tail feathers**

Dumbledore thought fondly of Fawkes while Harry thought of his own wand, and the connection it had to Voldemort's.

**and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as not two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

Sirius thought solemnly of his father's wand which he now used instead of his own.

Neville felt hopeful; maybe it wasn't his fault he was bad at magic, maybe it was the wand's! His gran had always told him it was his fault he couldn't live up to her expectations, but she could have been wrong. But he knew she wouldn't let him get a wand of his own; she would think he was dishonoring the name of his father by not using the wand he had used.

**Harry suddenly realised that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils,**

Remus raised an eyebrow, wondering how measuring between the nostrils helped find the length of the wand someone needed.

**was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves taking down boxes.**

"**That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right than, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."**

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish)**

Hermione smiled. "I did at first too. I was afraid that I would wave the wand and nothing would happen."

Arthur smiled. "I think all Muggleborns are. Even some children in wizard families fear that."

**-waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his ahdn almost at once.**

"**Maple and phoenix feather.**

Sirius raised an eyebrow at his godson, wondering if this was his wand since it mentioned the feather from a phoenix, but Harry shook his head.

**Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try-"**

**Harry tried- but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.**

"**No, no- here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."**

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

Sirius laughed. When he had tried over fifty wands, Mr. Ollivander had commented that he was one of his trickiest costomers. This had seemed to make him happy, while Mother and Reg had just become more and more impatient. Regulus had wanted to look at the racing brooms while his mother had just wanted to get home.

"**Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere- I wonder, now- yes, why not- unusual combination- holly and phoenix feather,**

When Sirius looked at his godson, this time the boy nodded. He bit his lip, preparing for everyones reaction to the connection between his and Voldemort's wands.

**eleven inches, nice and supple."**

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers.**

Many people smiled. It appeared he had found his match.

**He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end**

"Red and gold; a Gryffindor through and through!"

**like a firework, throwing dancing spots to light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well… curious… how very curious…"**

Bill raised an eyebrow. "What's curious?" He didn't see anything unusual.

**He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious… curious…"**

"**Sorry," said Harry,**

Hermione sighed, shaking her head. There he went again—apologizing for every little thing, things that he needn't be sorry for.

**"but **_**what's **_**curious?"**

**Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.**

"**I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand,**

_Fawkes, _Harry thought.

**gave another feather- just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother- why, its brother gave you that scar."**

Everyone gasped, the ones who hadn't known giving Harry looks of shock. He looked down, twisting his hands in his lap while Sirius glared at them all until they looked away.

Amelia and Umbridge were scribbling on their parchment. The difference was, Amelia merely looked thoughtful, while Umbridge looked sadistic, as though she were plotting some evil scheme, that no doubt ended with him getting expelled or worse. Fudge was staring at Harry hatefully, along with Percy Weasley.

No doubt they all saw this as a sign of him being a Dark Wizard.

**Harry swallowed.**

"**Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember… I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter…**

Everyone minus the obvious smiled at Harry. Yes, Ollivander had been right; he wasn't even sixteen yet and he had done more things than any Auror had ever faced or accomplished.

But Harry just frowned at his hands that were settled in his lap. He didn't feel he had done anything great; he didn't deserve their praising smiles. He had allowed voldemort to rise, he had let Cedric die…

**After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things-**

"W-what?" Fudge sputtered, shocked at the wandmaker's words as were many others.

**terrible, yes, but great."**

"How can he consider what You-Know-Who did to be great?" Charlie exclaimed, echoing the thoughts of most of the hall except for Malfoy who thought 'great' was a perfect word to use.

"I don't think he's calling what Voldemort did to be great, I think he just admires the magic," Remus told the older Weasley uncertainly.

Charlie nodded, though still feeling a bit uneasy.

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much.**

"I think he's brilliant," Luna sing-songed.

"Are you kidding me?" George exclaimed. "He's mad as a hatter!"

"The cleverest people in life always are."

George had no response for that.

**He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.**

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawping at them on the Underground**

"That must be annoying," Tonks muttered sympathetically, "being stared at wherever you go."

**laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the sleeping snowy owl on Harry's lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realised where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.**

"**Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.**

**He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.**

"I felt the same way," Hermione said, realizing this was probably how most people who didn't grow up knowing of magic felt.

"**You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life-**

Sirius frowned, hating how suckish Harry's life had been. James would probably hate him if he were here right now, for not taking care of his son as he had promised to…

**and yet- he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.**

"**Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell,**

Harry glared.

**Mr. Ollivander… but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol- sorry- I mean, the night my parents died."**

Draco and Snape bit their lip. Hearing this, it granted them a whole new perspective on the 'real' Harry Potter. And they weren't sure they liked it. Had they been wrong about him this whole time?

**Hagrid leant across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

"**Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, yeh'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts-**

Harry felt himself smile. That had been true, at least. Hogwarts was like his home—more of a home than Privet Drive had ever been.

**I did- still do, 'smatter of fact."**

**Hagrid helped Harry onto the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.**

"**Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September- King's Cross- it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me… See yeh soon, Harry."**

"He didn't tell you how to get on the platform!" Sirius protested loudly

"Sirius, relax," Remus tried to calm him, "I'm sure Petunia will tell him where to go."

Molly shook her head, displeased that hagrid hadn't told him. He had been oh so polite that day when he asked how to get on the platform… she wished her children could be more like that.

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

As the chapter finished, two stomachs grumbled loudly.

"I'm hungry," Ron and Sirius complained.

Remus and Hermione rolled their eyes. "You're always hungry," they said.

Many people laughed.

"It is three in the morning," Molly pointed out to the two starved males. "Why are you hungry _now?" _They both shrugged.

Dumbledore chuckled. "We'll take a break after two more chapters, how does that sound?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The headmaster clapped his hands together. "Great! Now that that is settled, who would like to read next?"

**AN: Sorry about the long non-updating period! I have no excuses, only very much shame. Please review and tell me what you think, if you like it; constructive criticism is welcome, but please, no flames. Do think everyone was in character, and not too OOC?**

**PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW! PLEASSSEEE?**


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